THE LIFE 



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Prince Edward County, Virginia. 



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<T B. JETER. 



RICHMOND: 

J. T, ELLYSON, 1112 MAIN STREET. 
1875. 



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Richmond : 

Printed by Whittet & Shepperson, 

1001 Main Street. 




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Contents. 



PAGE. 

Introduction 5 

CHAPTER I. 
Autobiography 13 

CHAPTER II. 

Reminiscences of Dr. Witt in the Period em- 
braced in his Autobiography 91 

CHAPTER III. 
Dr. Witt's Missionary Labors 113 

CHAPTER IV. 

Dr, Witt's Residence in Charlotte County 133 

CHAPTER V. 

Dr, Witt's Removal from Charlotte to Prince 

Edward County 143 



4 Contents. 

CHAPTER VI. 
Dr. Witt's Pastoral Laboes 151 

CHAPTER VII. 

Dr. Witt's Labors and Influence beyond the 
Limits of his own Churches.., 171 

CHAPTER VIII. 
Dr. Witt's Experience in the War 195 

CHAPTER IX. 
Dr. Witt at Home 213 

CHAPTER X. 
Crossing the River 22,~> 

CHAPTER XL 

Character and Preaching Talents of Dr. Witt, 24:^ 

Dr. Sydnor's Delineation of Dr. Witt's Minis- 
terial Qualifications and Character 263 



Introduction. 



l/H Y should the life of Daniel Witt be 
% written? This question is natural and 
proper. The world is desirous to know 
the history of great men. If a man is 
eminent for genius, or learning, or heroism, or 
exploits, or has in any manner conferred bene- 
fits, or made kn abiding impression, on his 
generation, his contemporaries are curious to 
learn his origin, his training, his intellectual 
and moral qualities, his habits, the striking in- 
cidents of his life, and the various steps by 
which he attained distinction. His biography 
will not only be demanded, but, if well written, 
will have a wide and remunerative circulation. 
Witt was not great. He occupied but a nar- 
row sphere in the affairs of the world. He was 
a plain man, living all his days among a plain, 
2 



6 Life of Rev. Daniel Witt, 

rural people. He was not renowned for the 
brilliancy of his intellect, his scholarship, his 
labors, or his successes. Indeed, he was but 
little known beyond the very limited range of 
his ministry. What need is there, then, that 
his life should be written ? 

It is true that Witt occupied no wide sphere ; 
but it is equally true, that within his sphere no 
man was more admired, loved and useful. If 
he had not a splendid genius, he had a sound 
and practical intellect ; if he had not profound 
learning, he had what was better, an experi- 
mental acquaintance with divine truth, an inti- 
mate knowledge of the scriptures, and an un- 
common art of winning souls; if he was not 
great, as the world counts greatness, he was, 
at least, eminently good; and if his influence 
was limited, it was all the more concentrated, 
powerful, and controlling. The only proper 
motive for writing the life of any man is, to do 
good. The lives of renowned men too often 
shine only to dazzle, bewilder, and mislead. 
They inspire a false ambition, instill corrupt 
principles, awaken delusive hopes, and conceal 



Introduction. 7 

the odiousness of vice by the splendor of suc- 
cess. The life of Dr. Witt, if truthfully written, 
can shed no deceptive and misguiding light. It 
is not only safe to follow his example, but, in 
all its essential traits, it may be imitated by the 
rich and the poor, the high and the low. His 
Life, among his friends and acquaintances, in- 
deed, among all who shared in the benefits of 
his ministry, will be read with uncommon in- 
terest ; for he had, in an extraordinary degree, 
the power of attaching to himself all persons 
with whom he associated. There is no reason, 
however, why the circulation of his Life should 
be limited to his personal acquaintances. If 
its author is not at fault, it must have a charm 
for all the admirers of well developed, sym- 
metrical, and matured piety. 

Why, among the friends of Dr. Witt, should 
I be selected to write his life ? The question 
merits a candid reply. Of all his admirers, I 
am, on some accounts, the most unfit for the 
task. Our lives, for a considerable time, were 
so blended that it is difficult to separate them. 
I shall, therefore, be in constant danger of fall 



8 Life of Rev. Daniel Witt. 

ing into that egotism which is so offensive in a 
writer of biography. Besides, I was his friend — 
his intimate and admiring friend — and even if I 
could divest myself of all partiality in judging 
of him, it is not likely that the world would 
give me credit for the attainment. In other 
respects, I am better qualified to perform the 
service than any other person. I knew him 
longer and more intimately than any of his 
friends. Indeed, it is questionable whether 
one man ever more thoroughly knew another 
than I knew Daniel Witt. Through a period 
of fifty years, we never concealed a secret the 
one from the other. His life, from his boyhood 
to the hour of his death, is almost as well 
known to me as is my own. To write his life 
is to me, not only a duty of friendship, but a 
labor of love. I only lament that, amid the 
almost incessant claims of editorial duty, I 
have not the time requisite for the performance 
of the task in such a manner as the ardor of my 
affection for my lamented friend, and the un- 
surpassed loveliness of his character, demand. 
What materials can be furnished for writing 



Introduction. 9 

the Life of Dr. Witt? This is a needful in 
quiry. But little interest can be imparted to 
the most distinguished life, if the events of 
which it was composed have not been preserved 
in their freshness, either in written records or 
in the memories of the living. Through the 
earnest persuasion of Dr. William E. Hatcher 
of Petersburg, who thought that a record of 
Dr. Witt's life should be preserved, he was in- 
duced, a short while before his death, to write 
a brief autobiography, extending to a period 
several years after he entered the ministry. 
This will, doubtless, be the most interesting 
portion of his Life. Had he continued the re- 
cord to the close of his labors, though greater 
fulness of detail might be desired, my present 
labor would have been, in a large measure, 
superseded. He left some brief journals, writ- 
ten within the period covered by his autobio- 
graphy. His preserved letters are quite nu- 
merous, but though composed in a pious spirit 
and abounding in noble sentiments, they record 
but few of the events of his life. Several of 
his written sermons have been preserved, which 



10 Life of Rev. Daniel Witt. 

can hardly be considered as fair specimens of 
the unwritten, but not unpremeditated dis- 
courses, that, in his happy moods, he poured 
forth from the pulpit to the never failing de- 
light of his hearers. The dim outline of his 
life is ineffaceably photographed on my mem- 
ory. From all these sources, it is proposed to 
make a small volume, recording the labors, 
delineating the character, and portraying the 
end of Dr. Witt, that may be a valuable mem- 
orial to his friends, and a light to guide serious 
inquirers into the path of piety, peace and use- 
fulness. 

To one point I invite special attention. The 
autobiography of Dr. Witt, written under the 
shadow, or rather within the radiance, of the 
tomb, is published just as he left it. It contains 
some matters not exactly relevant to his life, 
omits many facts that properly belong to it, 
and prevents, to some extent, a symmetrical 
composition of it ; but his friends will wish to 
see it just as he wrote it. Almost all the facts 
stated by him came within my personal know- 
ledge. It may be questioned whether it is in 



Introduction, 11 

good taste to publish the extravagant enco- 
rriums of the lamented author on the biographer. 
It should be remembered that they were written 
by a devoted and partial friend, with the expec- 
tation that they would not be published until 
both the writer and the subject of his praises 
should have entered the land where all earthly 
praises are worthless. These highly colored 
compliments could not be erased without doing 
injustice to the unselfish friendship of Dr. Witt. 
I receive them with pleasure, as the effusion of 
his warm, personal affection, and, if the reader 
so considers, his excessive admiration ; hoping 
that my age, if not divine grace, may preserve 
me from any undue elation. To one who has 
passed the age of three score years and ten, it 
must seem, and really is, of small moment 
whether he be praised or censured of men. 



Chapter i. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 



-*&c 



Chapter i. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 



H E following correspondence is the best 
preface that can be furnished to the ensu- 
ing brief sketch of his early life, written 
by Dr. Witt. I figure more largely in the 
correspondence than I had supposed. That I 
do not strike out all references to myself is due 
to the fact that my life is so closely connected 
with that of Dr. Witt that they cannot well be 
separated. The reader must pardon what is 
seemingly egotistic, in view of the necessities 
of the narrative. The correspondence needs no 
elucidation. 

Petersburg, 1th March, 1871. 
Rev, D. Witt, D. D., 

My Dear Brother : For some time, I have felt anx- 
ious that a full and reliable account of the childhood, 
conversion and early ministry of yourself and Dr. Jeter, 



16 Life of Bev. Daniel Witt. 

should be prepared and preserved. Too young to urge 
the subject upon your attention, and far too timid to 
volunteer my services for the work, I have so far done 
nothing. 

During a recent visit of Dr. Jeter to Petersburg, I 
ventured to open the matter to him, and he expressed a 
wish that I would undertake the collection of material 
for such a work, and agreed to place in my hands such 
facts as he remembers of your and of his early life. Of 
course, the account cannot be made complete without 
your help. Hence I must be bold enough to come with 
the case to you. 

I feel a double embarrassment in approaching you. 
Your humility will render you reluctant to furnish what 
is to be the basis of your own history. Then I fear that 
my application for these materials will seem equal to a 
request that I may be your biographer. For myself, I 
must frankly say, that I would feel it a precious honor 
to be chosen to guard the memory and prepare the 
history of yourself and Dr. Jeter, and, moreover, that 
if I survive'you, and no one else, better qualified, can 
be found to do it, I would certainly do it. At the same 
time it is not my present object to propose such~a ser- 
vice, or to ask the privilege of doing the work. 

I feel as a Baptist and as a Bedford man, that as your 
and Dr. Jeter's entrance into the ministry makes a 
strong and important point in our (State) denomina- 
tional history, the record of it ought to be preserved. I 



Autobiography. 17 

am sure too that if such a statement is ever made, most 
of the facts must be gotten from him and yourself, since 
nearly all who knew you fifty years ago are gone, Even 
those who survive could only furnish disjointed and 
fragmentary recollections. 

You must excuse me then for what I am about to say. 
Have you, in any form which your friends could use, 
an account of your early life ? If so, is it as full and 
candid as they would wish to find it ? If you have not 
such an account, may I urge to prepare it at once, and 
let it be as just to yourself as I know it would be to Dr.* 
Jeter? You need not put it in form for publication, 
but leave it as matter of reference, and you can entrust 
it to such persons as you prefer. * * * 

Permit me to say that I will be equally satisfied, if you 
wish it, for you to deposit your memoranda in other 
hands than mine ; but along with many of your brethren 
and friends, I would be deeply grieved, if you declined 
to accede to my request. May I hear from you at once ? 

Very hastily and affectionately, 

Your brother in Christ, 

Wm, E. Hatchee. 

To this letter Dr. Witt promptly returned 
the subjoined reply : 



18 



Life of Rev. Daniel Witt. 



Prince Edward County, March 13, 1871. 
Eev. W. E. Hatcher, 

My Dear Brother : I have just received your letter, 
and will say a few things in reply. I hardly know how 
to dispose of your proposition. Not that I am unwilling 
that you should be entrusted with the facts which you 
desire me to furnish. I know no man in whose judg- 
ment I have greater confidence, nor one with whom I 
would sooner leave the sacred trust of guarding my 
memory after I am dead. You are one of the Bedford 
• boys, and would " naturally care for my state." But 
really my life has been an uneventful one ; and, in the 
review of it, 1 can see nothing that seems to me to be 
worthy of sending down to posterity. God, in His 
providence, and, I doubt not, in great mercy to me, has 
placed me in a comparatively retired country position ; 
and you know there is little to attract attention or to 
gain celebrity in such a position, I have attended 
regularly to my ministerial duties all the time, and, I 
trust, some good has been done ; or if little or no good 
has grown out of my ministry, I am sure the world will 
not be the worse for my having lived in it so long. I 
never wrote a line in my life with the expectation that 
it would be published after my death ; and I have very 
meager memoranda of my early history. In complying 
with your request, I should have to beat the bush 
of my memory, to start out the facts and the scenes, 
which, after the wear and tear of half a century, have 



Autobiography. 19 

become dim to my view. I think, however, that I could 
recall most of the facts of my early life ; and facts are 
all that you want. The thing presents itself to my mind 
as eminently egotistic; and I should shrink from the 
task, if it were not for the persuasion which rests upon 
the minds of some of my brethren that such a thing 
might do good. The idea that anything which I may 
have said or done, during my life, should speak a word 
for Jesus after I am dead, does please me well ; but 
Oh, "my leanness, my leanness!" I am afraid the pic- 
ture, if faithfully drawn, will be a hideous skeleton 
rather than a well developed man. But with my present 
impressions, I agree to furnish you the information 
which you desire. * * * 

I learned from a sister from Charlotte a few days 
ago, that you will attend our Sabbath School Conven- 
tion, at Ashcamp, on the 28th inst. I do hope you will 
come ; your presence would give fresh interest to the 
meeting ; and it would allow us the opportunity of 
talking over, more at large and without reserve, the 
subject of our present correspondence. 

I have reached a period of life, and a state of health, 
when ambition, if I ever had it, seems to have burned 
itself out of my heart. The gush of youthful feeling — 
the vigor and flutter of early hope — and all the glitter 
of life are gone with me. It only remains for me to 
close up, as best I may, the long life which a kind provi- 
dence has measured out to me, and which now draws 



20 Life of Rev. Daniel Witt. 

near its termination. Personally, it matters nothing 
what the world may say of me, either living or dead. 
" Honor cannot set a broken joint," while I live, nor put 
a pulse in my heart when I am dead. Nor can detrac- 
tion or contempt disturb my repose after I shall have 
put off the shackles of mortality, and gone to the " rest 
that remaineth." But if you can make anything in such 
a life as mine subserve the cause of Christ when I am 
dead, the thought will not be unpleasant to me in my 
old age nor in my dying hour. The memoranda, if 
providence permit, tcill be put in your hands." 
Very affectionately, your brother, 

D. Witt. 

Shortly after the above letter was written, 
Dr. Witt prepared the desired memoranda of 
his early life ; but it did not reach the hands of 
Dr. Hatcher until their venerated author had 
gone to his "long home." 

The inquiry very naturally arises : Why did 
not Dr. Hatcher, as was anticipated, prepare 
the life of Dr. Witt ? As Dr. Witt and myself 
were contemporaries, it was not expected that 
one would survive to write the life of the other. 
God, however, seemed to order otherwise. My 
numerous engagements appeared to present 



Autobiography. 21 

insuperable barriers to my undertaking the 
work; but many of the Doctor's friends, Dr. 
Hatcher among the rest, insisted that my long 
continued intimacy with the deceased rendered 
me the most suitable person to prepare his 
biography. After some hesitation and delay, 
for the reasons stated in the introduction, I 
consented, at the earliest practicable moment, 
to commence the not unpleasant task. 



$R«i__ 



Autobiography. 

Contents: Reflections on Old Age. — His Birth 
and Parentage. — His Early Occupation. — His Con- 
version. — Remarks Concerning his Experience. — His 
Entrance on the Ministry. — Temperance Pledge. — 
His Itinerant Labors.— His Visit to Eichmond. — Re- 
marks on the Importance of Current Events. — For- 
mation or the General Association. — First Mis- 
sionary Tour. — Impressions of the People of West- 
ern Virginia. — Tour in Eastern Virginia. — Reasons 
for not seeking a collegiate education. — hls resi- 
DENCE with Semple. — His Labors in Williamsburg 
and Vicinity. 




Autobiography. 



f HE days of our years are three score years 
and ten." I am now treading on the verge 
of that appointed limit of life. I have en- 
tered my seventieth year ; whether I shall live 
to see its close is known only to Him who sees 
the end from the beginning. My advanced age, 
and the increasing infirmities which attend it, 
remind me continually of the approaching hour 
when my life shall end, and I shall rest from my 
labors. I am trying to prepare for an event 
which, I know cannot be far in the future ; but 
I have to deplore now, as much as ever, a spirit- 
ual leanness, which seems to have eaten into my 
very soul. I fain would let go this world, with 
all its perishable interests, and concentrate my 
thoughts and purposes upon the eternal future, 
which seems to lie so near me. There ought to 



26 Life of Rev. Daniel Witt. 

be a pause between the active period of life and 
the hour of death. If that pause is not made 
in the evening of our years, it will not be made 
at all. 

I have lived long enough to learn that age 
does not always destroy worldliness, nor bring 
with it the calmness and repose which we 
sometimes think belong to that period of life. 
Man, in his best estate, is a poor sinner; and 
the accumulation of years does not make him a 
saint. But in the leisure which old age allows, 
it is not only proper to anticipate the future, 
and prepare for its solemn realities, but it is 
permitted us to retrospect our lives, and gather 
whatever of instruction and comfort the review 
may furnish. It is a blessed provision of Pro- 
vidence, that when present enjoyments fail, and 
our lives have no future, we may bring up from 
the abysses of the past something to supply 
the deficiency of the passing hour. 

My life has been an uneventful one. The 
most of it has been spent in a pastoral relation 
with a plain country people, and in the regular 
performance of the duties which belong to such 



Autobiography. 27 

a relation. There are some events, however, 
connected with my history, now growing dim 
in memory, which I desire to record, as an illus- 
tration of the Providence of God, and the riches 
of sovereign grace. They are of some interest 
to me; they may never interest others. 

I was born on the 8th of November, 1801. 
My parents were Jesse and Alice Witt, of the 
county of Bedford, Va. I have great reason to 
be thankful that they were pious people. Both 
of them were members of the Baptist church ; 
and their children were reared "in the nurture 
and admonition of the Lord." From my earliest 
recollection, my father's house was the home of 
the preachers, and I have still, photographed 
on my memory, the very forms and features of 
the venerable fathers of the ministry of the last 
century who were in the habit of visiting his 
house. He, in early life, fought through several 
years of the Revolutionary war, and received in- 
juries in the service which made him an invalid 
for life. He walked on crutches until the day 
of his death. Being cut off by his bodily dis- 
abilities from active pursuits, and being exceed- 



28 Life of Rev, Daniel Witt 

ingly fond of books, he acquired a large fund 
of information upon almost all subjects. He 
was especially fond of doctrinal and contro- 
versial divinity ; and I well remember the fierce 
conflicts which sometimes occurred between 
1/t him and tj/o eminent Presbyterian ministers, 
and with whom he was on terms of great inti- 
macy. He was a stern and uncompromising 
Baptist ; a man of strict integrity, conscientious 
and true. He died in the 80th year of his age, 
in full hope of a blissful immortality. 

The maiden name of my mother was Alice 
Brown. She was born, and lived, and died, in 
Bedford. I suppose every man thinks well of 
his mother, but it really seems to me that no 
one ever deserved to be held in everlasting re- 
membrance more than the blessed woman who 
bore this tender relation to me. She was tall, 
spare, delicate in her frame, but generally of 
fine health and spirits. She was the very image 
of modesty, and meekness, and purity, and 
piety. She was almost worshipped by her chil- 
dren ; and I can never forget how the remark 
from an elder sister, "What will your mother 



Autobiography. 29 

think?" often checked me in some improper 
conversation, or in some sinful indulgence. 
The snows of seventy winters are on my head ; 
the length of life, and its crowding cares, have 
effaced from my heart the image of many a 
friend of former years, but her likeness is left 
in my secret soul, and her gentle voice still lin- 
gers in my ear. I have abundant reason to 
thank God for such parents, and it is one of the 
comforts of my declining years, that I shall soon 
see them again, in the world of blessedness, 
"where the wicked cease to trouble and the 
weary are at rest." 

My father inherited no fortune, and being an 
invalid, made a meagre support for his family 
by the trade which he learned after the war of 
the Revolution. He was enabled, by industry 
and economy, to purchase a small farm in the 
neighborhood of Liberty, upon which his large 
family of children was raised. Though fully 
alive to the importance of education, he had no 
means of giving his sons the advantage of much 
literary culture. "When I was ten years of age, 
I was sent to a school in the neighborhood, and 



30 Life of Rev. Daniel Witt. 

was kept at it for two years and three months. 
At the close of this period my literary oppor- 
tunities ended, and I was put to work on the 
farm. I had learned to read, write, and cipher ; 
I had a smattering of geography, and, what 
was considered a rare accomplishment in those 
days, a not very extensive, but pretty accurate 
knowledge of English grammar. Perhaps, after 
all. it was a kind Providence which forced me 
from school, and sent me to labor for the sup- 
port of my dependent parents at so early a pe- 
riod of my life. From my earliest childhood I 
was a pale, delicate, little weakling, with no 
strength of constitution, and without any prom- 
ise, except the promise of an early grave. Being 
obliged to labor in my father's field, my health 
improved, my strength increased, and hardened 
under a system of daily toil, which finally be- 
came a pleasure to me. I have lived, contrary 
to my own expectation, and the expectation of 
every body else, to make this statement in the 
seventieth year of my life. Being the youngest 
son of the family. I never dreamed of anything 
other than living with my parents, and laboring 



Autobiography. 31 

for their support during their lives ; nor was 
the thought of doing so at all unpleasant to my 
mind. But the Providence of God was even 
then shaping for me a course of life of which I 
little thought. 

On the fourth Sunday in August, 1821, there 
was held, at Hatcher's meeting-house, what was 
then called a " section meeting." It was before 
the age of protracted meetings, and other appli- 
ances and means which have been more recently 
put into operation for the promotion of the cause 
of Christ. The association was divided into 
four sections, in one or more of which annual 
meetings of two or three days were held by the 
ministers of the body, and others, whose services 
could be procured. At this meeting, held on 
the fourth Lord's day in August, 1821, I re- 
ceived impressions which changed all the plans 
of my life, turned my thoughts, and impulses, 
and purposes into a new channel ; and whatever 
may have been the source or the character of 
them, have exerted a controlling power over my 
life for half a century. 

The distance I had to travel to this meeting 



32 Life of Bev. Daniel Witt. 

was less than twenty miles. I had never been 
so far from home before. Like some sapling, 
I had vegetated and grown up in my native 
valley, without knowing anything of the regions 
beyond. I went on the night before to the 
house of a minister who was in the habit of 
visiting my father, and where religious services 
were held. Here I met, for the first time, with 
my life-long friend, Rev. J. B. Jeter. I do not 
know how we were introduced to each other, or 
how we fell, immediately, into a familiar ac 
quaintanceship. He was then a tall young man, 
with rather awkward manners, but full of fire 
and enthusiasm. In general information, and 
in force of native intellect, he seemed to be far in 
advance of the boys with whom I was in the 
habit of associating. There was something 
which drew us together, and like kindred drops 
made us mingle into one. And here commenced 
a friendship which has not been exceeded in 
tenderness, nor permanence, nor purity, since 
the days of David and Jonathan. Like a beau- 
tiful stream, it has run smoothly on for fifty 
years, without a ripple on its surface, or the 



A utobiography. 33 

smallest impediment to interrupt its progress. 
During that whole period of time, I do not re- 
collect that anything has occurred to make an 
apology from one to the other, or even an ex- 
planation, necessary. Of one heart, and of one 
soul, we have lived like brothers, sympathizing 
with each other, in prosperity and adversity. 
To this union I am indebted for much of the 
pleasure and the usefulness of my lif e ; if, indeed, 
such a poor life as mine can be said to have been 
useful. 

The next morning we rode together to the 
place of meeting, little knowing what would be- 
fall us there. Certainly the idea of being con- 
verted, or of receiving any religious impression, 
was not in all our thoughts. The taste of one 
of our restless congregations now would be 
shocked at the thought of spending a whole 
day in unintermitted service ; such, however, 
was the custom of those times, and Jeter and 
myself took our seats together, prepared for a 
long session. In the early part of the exercises 
I found myself, unexpectedly, the subject of 
new and strange emotions. I could not account 



34 Life of Rev. Daniel Witt. 

for it. There was nothing unusual in the char- 
acter of the services. There was no special 
ability in the discom^se to which I was listening, 
and nothing in the surroundings of the moment, 
to awaken my feelings ;* and yet an uncon- 
trollable power had fallen on me, and mastered 
my soul. I had never wept before in a public, 
worshipping assembly, and was really ashamed 
when the big, unbidden tears began to drop 
down my face. I summoned up all my resolu- 
tion, and determined by one mighty effort to 
quench the flood of feelings which like proud 
waters was overflowing my heart; it was a 
vain effort. I hid my head behind the shoulders 
of my friend, unwilling that he should witness 
my weakness ; but still I shook convulsively, 
and soon found that he too was under the con- 
trol of similar impressions. It was a day " much 
to be remembered," and before the close of it, 
we had both determined to be Christians. The 
congregation broke up, and we silently and sol- 
emnly returned to our homes. 

* John Davis, Leftwich, Harris, and Dempsy preached 
on the occasion. 



Autobiography. 35 

I had a considerable distance to ride, and 
when I reached home, there was a group of 
young people from the neighborhood assembled 
at my father's house, engaged in the frivolous 
conversation and common amusements in which 
they were then in the habit of indulging. As 
soon as I entered the room, I saw that my 
presence and appearance threw a damper over 
the company. I could hardly answer their en- 
quiries in regard to the meeting ; and as soon 
as I could, I left the house, and took a solitary 
walk in the darkness. I had often prayed before 
this time. My father had regular worship in 
his family ; and in my childhood, taught to lisp 
the name of Jesus, I had often been on my knees, 
and sometimes thought I was becoming a very- 
good little boy. But now, for the first time in 
my life, under a sense of real wretchedness and 
want, I bowed myself in earnest before "the 
great and dreadful God. " I can never forget the 
feelings of that hour. I kneeled on the ground ; 
I lifted my eyes towards heaven ; there the stars 
shone out in all their silent beauty ; but where, 
I thought, is the God who lighted their lustre, 



3G Lift <>f lite. Daniel Witt. 

and bade them shine ! Will He hear a poor 
sinner pray \ I looked ^around me ; all was 
darkness. I looked within me, and the outward 
gloom was brightness to the midnight which 
rested on my soul. I seemed to be a lone, lost 
sinner in the vast universe of God, and could 
only utter a feeble prayer for help. I had not 
yet learned the full extent of my helplessness 
and guilt, and hoped, by and by, by the use of 
the proper means, to secure the favor of God. 

A long experience and observation have con- 
vinced me that there lies embedded in every 
human heart a principle of self-righteousness, 
which often postpones the period of submission 
to Christ, and is an engine of destruction to 
immortal souls. With the light which I now 
have on the subject, it is manifest to my mind 
that the instruction given to enquirers at the 
time when my attention was first turned to 
eternal things was seriously defective. I was 
taught to believe that it was not my privilege to 
appropriate to myself the promises of Christ to 
penitent sinners, till, after a long course of peni- 
tence, suffering and prayer I should be entitled 



Autobiography. 37 

to hope in the mercy of God. With this persua 
sion, mingled with the Pharisaism which seems 
to be a part of fallen human nature, I did not 
feel it to be my duty, or my privilege, to submit 
myself immediately to the gospel of Christ, but 
supposed I must undergo the tedious prepara- 
tion which was thought to be a prerequisite to 
the reception of the Divine blessing. I supposed 
that in a month or two I might become a Chris- 
tian. I even set a time when I hoped I would 
be converted ; but when that time - came, I 
seemed to be further from it than ever. 

Everything in my experience was strange 
and unexpected. I was led along a path, and 
was the subject of exercises which had not oc- 
curred to my mind in all my thoughts. There 
were several things connected with the case 
which were surprising to me. 

1. I was surprised at the blindness of my 
mind. I thought I was capable of understand- 
ing plain subjects when they were brought be- 
fore me. This matter of experimental religion 
was the topic of conversation, whenever the 
aged members of the church met at my father's 
4 



38 



Life of Rev. Daniel Witt. 



house. It was a time of religious inquiry, and 
I was familiar with discussions upon doctrinal, 
experimental, and practical Christianity. I 
knew, well enough, the difference between Ar- 
minianism and Calvinism, and between Baptists 
and Paedo-baptists. I had often heard the 
several points of Christian experience talked 
over, and thought I knew all about it. But 
when I came to apply my knowledge to my 
own case, I found myself in utter embarrass- 
ment. I could not understand the plan of 
salvation, or discover a way of escape from 
merited punishment for such a guilty sinner as 
myself. I had eyes, but I did not see ; a heart, 
but did not understand. A thick cloud of 
darkness rested on my soul. I could not see 
an inch before my face. 

2. I was surprised at the deep-rooted depra- 
vity of my heart. I had known for a long time 
that I was a sinner, and was ready enough to 
acknowledge it. But now the*sinfulness of my 
very nature presented itself to me in a new 
light. My thoughts were corrupt, wandering, 
and ungovernable. My will was perverse, and J 



Autobiography. 39 

seemed to be bent upon evil. My affections 
were low, sordid, and sinful. My outward life 
was full of sin ; my soul within me was a mass 
of moral putrefaction and death. 

3. I was surprised at my insensibility. In 
my first religious exercises I was all tenderness 
and tears. I could weep oyer my condition, in 
private meditation, and in public worship. But 
soon my heart seemed to be turned into stone. 
Neither the thunders of Sinai, nor the melting 
mercy of the cross, could soften my stubborn 
spirit. 

4. I was surprised that I could make no pro- 
gress in reaching the end I had in view. I 
had abstained strictly from every vicious prac- 
tice. I read the Bible with special reference to 
my own case, and that I might be led to a 
knowledge of the way of life. I attended meet- 
ings, far and near, and received whatever in- 
struction ministers could give me, both in 
public and private. I prayed, as best I could, 
for the forgiveness I so much needed. From 
the time I accepted the invitation to come for- 
ward for special prayer, all sense of shame had 



40 Life of Rev. Daniel Witt. 

left me, and I devoted myself, with singleness 
of purpose, and a hearty determination, to the 
one great object of securing the salvation of 
my soul. And still, after days and weeks of 
honest, earnest effort, I could not perceive that 
I had advanced a single step ; but on the other 
hand, like the woman in the gospel, who had 
spent all she had on physicians, I had grown 
worse, rather than better. The truth is — but I 
did know it then — I was trying all the time, and 
by the use of every means within my reach, to 
make myself good enough to be a Christian, 
without coming as a poor sinner to Christ, for 
His unmerited mercy. 

No tongue can express the anguish of my 
soul during the long weeks, which passed 
slowly away, between my first impressions, and 
the hour of deliverance, which came at last. I 
felt myself to be one of the guiltiest sinners on 
the earth; and after the lapse of fifty years, I 
have no reason to believe that that conviction 
was false. I thought of the unpardonable sin, 
and feared I had committed it. I looked for- 
ward with dread to the day of reckoning, and 



Autobiography. 41 

saw no way of escape from the doom pronounced 
against incorrigible sinners. 

While this terrible struggle was going on in 
my mind, I often met with my friend, J. B. 
Jeter. "We compared our views and feelings. 
There was a striking sameness in our exercises. 
We wept together. We bowed at the same 
altar of prayer. We endeavored to strengthen 
each other's resolution to persevere to the very- 
end of life, if we did not attain sooner the bless- 
ing we pursued. So deeply was I impressed 
with the value of my soul, and the importance 
of religion, that I would willingly have laid my 
neck on a block, and had my head severed from 
my body, if by such a sacrifice I could have se- 
cured the favor of God. And yet there was 
something in my proud and deluded heart 
which prevented me from receiving as a gift 
what I fain would have purchased by the price 
of my imperfect performances. 

Time wore away without bringing relief to 
my mind. Those who entered with me in per- 
suit of this eternal good had outstripped me in 
the race, and were "rejoicing in hope." Even 



42 Life of Hev. Daniel Witt. 

Jeter, the friend of my soul, had 'reached the 
goal, while I was left far behind in the dis- 
tance. It did seem as if there must be some- 
thing peculiar in my case, or that God had 
determined to withhold for ever His mercy 
from such a lost, guilty sinner, as I knew my- 
self to be. I could but confess that such a 
dispensation of wrath would be in strict accord- 
ance with the principles of justice, and my own 
deserts. 

In this state of mind, with something like 
despair thickening over my heart, I attended 
one of the usual weekly night meetings which 
were held in my neighborhood. I do not now 
recollect anything of the sermon, or of the peo- 
ple who were present. I was sunk into my own 
individuality, deploring the almost certain loss 
of my soul; and I had "ceased from man," as- 
sured that he could do me no good. Anxious 
persons were invited forward for prayer. I 
went with others, and kneeled in an obscure 
corner of the room. I do not know how long 
I had remained in that position, for I continued 
on my knees after the prayer had been offered. 



Autobiography, 43 

Y>\\i gradually, and mysteriously, and without 
my knowing wherefore, or how, relief came to 
my burdened heart. I revolved the matter in 
my thoughts. I altered my posture — I raised 
myself up — I looked around upon the people — 
could I be deceived? — yes, there was peace. 
Silently, and unobserved, I found my hat, and 
left the house, that I might have the oppor- 
tunity of tracing my exercises to their source, 
and of ascertaining, if I could, what might be 
the cause of the change which I was conscious 
had overspread my soul. 

I had, from the beginning of my religious 
convictions, been afraid of deception ; and I de- 
termined to make sure work of it. Momentous 
interests w r ere involved; I could not deceive 
God ; and I would not willingly deceive myself, 
or others. It w 7 as a dark and drizzly night, and 
as I walked back alone to my father's house, I 
sought earnestly to understand my true status 
in the sight of God. A manifest change had 
been wrought in my feelings ; but was this con- 
version? I did not knovi it to be so. It did 
not come at the time, nor in the way I supposed 



44 Life of Rev. Daniel Witt. 

it would come. I saw nothing; I heard no- 
thing ; but I felt something for which I could 
not account. I tried to bring back my sense of 
guilt ; it was gone. I tried to flood my soul 
again with the miseries under which I had 
groaned for many weeks ; but there was rest. 
I essayed to pray as I had often prayed before, 
"God be merciful to me a sinner;" a prayer 
suited to all times and all men ; but thanksgiving 
mingled with the cry for mercy. In that hour, 
alone in the forest, and in the midst of midnight 
darkness, I felt in my heart the very first full- 
formed hope of acceptance with God through 
Jesus Christ. As I walked along in the rain, 
with my hat in my hand, the starless gloom of 
night seemed to me lustrous with light from 
heaven. I reached home, and quietly retired 
to a rest which I had not enjoyed before for a 
long time. This event, which forms an era in 
the history of my life, occurred on the 21st of 
October, 1821. 

Every person of large experience knows how 
the feelings of our hearts give a coloring to all 
the objects which surround us. When some 



Autobiography. 45 

great sorrow has arrayed the soul in the drapery 
of woe, a melancholy shadow seems to rest upon 
earth's brightest scenes. And so too, when 
some great joy has taken possession of the heart, 
it touches and tinges with its golden ray the 
gloomiest and most desolate scenes on earth. 
Such w 7 as the state of my mind, and the appear- 
ance of things when I awoke on the following 
morning. The clouds had passed away, and 
more beautiful and bright than I had ever seen 
it before, the sun threw its splendours over 
valley and hill. The very trees seemed to sing 
and shine. Creation, to my view, was born 
again. If the " new heavens and the new earth" 
had suddenly risen from the ashes of the old 
world, and " the bride, the Lamb's wife,"dressed 
in her richest robes, had come to bless it with 
her presence, I do not think a greater change 
would have been wrought than in the scene 
which greeted my eyes when I looked out upon 
the glories of that blessed morning. New hopes, 
new desires, a new found happiness, and a new 
heart had made all things new. Gradually, 
during the day, the plan of salvation through 



46 Life of Rev. Daniel Witt. 

the finished work of Christ, unfolded itself to 
my mind; and I felt, if I had ten thousand 
souls I could rest them all here with perfect 
safety. I knew that the scheme of redemption 
through Christ was of God, for it was just like 
Him ; and it was precisely adapted to my blind, 
helpless, and guilty condition. In reading the 
Scriptures, new treasures were brought out con- 
tinually ; and I enjoyed with a new delight the 
public services of the sanctuary, and the exer 
cises of private devotion. I loved everybody ; I 
prayed for everybody ; and had salvation been 
put into my hands, everybody would have been 
saved. 

It was a joyful meeting which I had with my 
aged parents when they first heard I had been 
brought to trust in Jesus. For many long years 
a spiritual dearth had prevailed over the country, 
and it was a matter of thankfulness and joy, 
when they saw salvation come to their own 
house. It was the beginning of a blessed work 
of grace, which, before it was done, brought 
every member of the family into the fold of the 
Good Shepherd. Nor less joyful was the meet- 



Autobiography. 47 

ing which I had with my friend J. B. Jeter. 
"We had commenced our religious career at the 
same time ; struggled on together through two 
terrible months of conflict with sin and Satan ; 
and now were indulging the same sweet hope 
of salvation through the blood of Jesus. "We 
had first to compare our experience, and ascer- 
tain the real basis of our hope. There was a 
striking similarity in our exercises ; and after 
a solemn self-examination, and some hesitation 
and doubt on my part, we settled the case in 
our own favor, and accepted our conversion as 
real and sound. Soon after this interview he 
was baptized, and received into the fellowship 
of the Church in his neighborhood. I witnessed 
the scene. It was one of surpassing interest 
to me. As he ascended from his burial with 
Christ, and all wet with the waters of baptism, 
he addressed the multitudes who lined the banks 
of the stream and the adjacent hills in a glow- 
ing exhortation, which brought tears from many 
an eye unused to weeping. It was the begin- 
ning of a Christian life, which, after the lapse 
of fifty years, has no stain to sully its lustre, 



48 Life of JRev. Daniel Witt. 

and of a ministry distinguished alike for its 
ability and its success. 

I had no trouble in regard to the Church I 
should join. I was taught from my infancy to 
regard the Church of my fathers as the Church 
of Christ ; and now that I was seeking a place 
among the people of God, it seemed to be my 
proper home. Nor did a moment's trouble dis- 
turb my mind on the subject of baptism. A 
careful reading of the New Testament confirmed 
the convictions of my earlier years; and no 
shadow of a doubt has rested on my mind from 
that day to this, with regard to the mode or the 
subjects of this sacred ordinance. My faith on 
this subject is as firm and unshaken as my faith 
in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, and the 
Saviour of sinners. I know I have been bap- 
tized in conformity with His command, and with 
His example; and the wonder is that there 
should be any doubt in any mind on the sub- 
ject. "With pieces of ice floating on the water, 
I was baptized near the residence of my father, 
in a pool prepared for the purpose, by Eev. 
William Harris, on the second Lord's day in De- 



Autobiography. 49 

cember, 1821, and received into the full fellow- 
ship of the Little Otter church, worshipping 
then, as now, in the town of Liberty. 

In the review of my religious experience, as 
recorded in the foregoing pages, I think I can 
now see many sad defects. I attached too 
much importance to mere feeling. I mingled 
some superstition, which I had caught from 
others, or which was born of my own ignorance, 
with my views of truth, and with the exercises 
which finally led me, as a poor sinner, to the 
feet of Christ. I am satisfied now, that what I 
then thought was Divine manifestation, was 
often nothing more than the picturing of my 
own fancy. I tremble, even now, when I think 
of the possibility of deception in a matter of 
such tremendous importance. But after all, I 
must rest the case here. I know myself to be 
the vilest and guiltiest of sinners. All my 
weakness only God can know. I never did 
anything— I never suffered anything — I never 
said anything, which deserves to be mentioned 
as meritorious, or which can commend me to 
the favor of God. As lost, ruined, and guilty, I 



50 Life of Hev. Daniel Witt. 

trust alone in the name of Jesus for pardon 
and acceptance with God. And should there 
be defect in my faith, as imperfection seems to 
belong to the holiest exercises of Christian life, 
I think I can say that God knows I desire to 
trust Him right; and with that humble trust 
I must appear in His presence at last. After 
long trial, I am sure, if I am not a Christian 
now, I never shall be one; and if my hope 
which I have "set in God" fail me, all is lost 
for ever. But " sinners may hope, since Jesus 
has died." 

The religious interest which began at the 
time of my awakening continued long, and 
spread far and wide. Like fire in the moun- 
tains, a spark wafted by the wind would catch 
here and there, until the whole world seemed to 
be in a blaze. Unlike some revivals which we 
have seen since then, which sweep over a com- 
munity like a storm, and are only known after 
they have passed by the track of desolation 
which they leave behind them, this revival was 
steady in its progress, continued under the 
common pastoral labor, and permanent in its 



Autobiography. 51 

blessed results, its widening influence being 
felt to this day. At almost every monthly 
meeting accessions were made to the churches. 

From the hour of my conversion, it had been 
a question of earnest inquiry with me, how I 
could best glorify God, and promote the wel- 
fare of men. I really desired to do something 
for Him who had done so much for me ; and I 
thought that a love for souls constrained me to 
do something for them. On the day after my 
first indulgence of Christian hope, I was 'sur- 
prised to find my heart going out in earnest 
prayer for sinners. Until then, my prayers 
had been strictly confined to my own condition 
and wants ; but then my desires embraced the 
whole world. I fain would have taken in my 
arms the whole of our sinful race, and put them 
down at the feet of Jesus. But what could I, 
a poor ignorant, sickly boy, fresh from the 
handles of the plough, and without a single 
qualification to fit me for the work, do in the 
accomplishment of such an object as this ? 

Weekly night meetings were kept up at the 
houses of brethren in the neighborhood, and 



52 Life of Rev, Daniel Witt, 

I was in the habit of attending them, with 
great regularity and pleasure. My soul feasted 
on the dainties of Divine worship, and rejoiced 
in the conversion of sinners. It was nothing 
for me to walk ten or twelve miles to, and from, 
one of these meetings, after the usual labors of 
the day were over on the farm. On one of 
these occasions, after a sermon had been 
preached, and other exercises were going on, 
Father Leftwich approached me and said, " Will 
you pray for these sinners, when they finish 
that songf The meeting was deeply interest- 
ing, and a large number of enquirers were on 
their knees. I had never prayed in public, but 
I had often poured out my heart to God in 
private. I knew what I wanted, and was will- 
ing to ask God to give it. I performed the duty, 
without let or hindrance; and it was a subject 
of pleasant congratulation that I had sur- 
mounted so easily the obstacles which often de- 
ter from the performance of public duty. After 
this I was frequently called on to pray in public 
meetings, and always responded to the call. 
In the early part of January, 1822, a prayer 



Autob iography. 53 

meeting was appointed at the house of my 
pastor, and all the young members of the Church 
were specially invited to attend it. It was in- 
tended to bring out whatever gifts they might 
have ; to encourage them in the cultivation of 
them ; and I was invited to make an address. 
I went forward with fear and trembling ; but 
after the first sentence was pronounced, the 
Lord gave me such calmness and composure, 
and such readiness of utterance, that I went 
through the service without the least difficulty. 
What made the occasion one of deeper interest 
to me, was the fact, that my poor, weak effort 
was made the means of the conversion of a 
young man in the congregation, who ever after 
lived like a Christian, and died in full hope of 
heavenly blessedness. And now, having begun 
the work, it seemed there was to be no end of 
it; I was called out at the close of every meet- 
ing to say something to the people. 

The duty of entering upon the ministry was 

soon suggested by my brethren, and it became 

a subject of earnest consideration to me. It 

was the theme of my thoughts by day, and of 

5 



54 Life of Rev. Daniel Witt. 

my dreams by night. Like "fire shut up in 
my bones," it threatened to consume me by the 
fierceness of its flames. I was deeply and pain- 
fully conscious of my unfitness for the work. I 
had but little bodily strength or health. I had 
enjoyed very slender literary opportunities. 
My means of acquiring information had been 
very limited. I seemed to know nothing but 
that man is a sinner, and that Christ came to 
save him. But I could say what I knew about 
Jestts and His salvation, and was it not my duty 
to say it ? The truth is, I desired above all 
things to be an humble, useful minister of the 
gospel. Had crowns been offered me, I should 
have preferred this office above all others ; this 
honor above all honors. But oh ! " my leanness ; 
my leanness!" I revolved the matter in my 
mind. I prayed over it. I sought the advice 
of my friends. I knew I desired to glorify God 
and to do good to souls ; but was it my duty 
to enter regularly into the Christian ministry, 
and make this the great business and object of 
my life ? I finally concluded that I would con- 
tinue the exercise of my gifts, as opportunity 



Autobiography. 55 

might be presented to me, not dreaming that I 
should ever be known beyond the bounds of my 
native county. In pursuance of this determi- 
nation, I went with the preachers to their ap- 
pointments ; continued to speak to the people ; 
and before I was aware of it, I had become a 
preacher myself. My first regular sermon was 
delivered at the house of brother J. Preston, 
in the county of Bedford, on the 11th day of 
February, 1822, from the words, " Unto you, 
O man, I call, and My voice is unto the sons 
of men." I was licensed by my Church to 
preach the gospel, wherever the Providence of 
God should call me to labor, on the 13th of 
April, of the same year. 

During the first few years of our ministry, 
brother Jeter and myself were in constant asso- 
ciation with each other. We read the same 
books. We had the same trials. We formed 
the same plans. We indulged the same hopes. 
We aimed at the same great object. We were 
surrounded by the same outward circumstances. 
Not precisely like the two young sons of song, 
who occupied a room in a garret in the city of 



56 Life of Rev. Daniel Witt 

London, and who had but one room, and one 
bed, and one table, and one chair, and one hat ; 
we needed but one room, or one bed, but were 
fortunate enough each to have a hat of his 
own. We had, however, but one purse ; and I 
may add, we had but one sermon. Indeed, I 
believe that, in the whole ministry of the Straw- 
berry Association, there was but one sermon in 
those days. It was sound. The strictest or- 
thodoxy could find no flaw in its doctrines. 
It abounded in the riches of experimental re- 
ligion, and of sovereign grace. It was a long 
sermon. It began with the fall of man ; brought 
out to view the glorious plan of recovery by 
Christ ; carried its redeemed subjects through 
the waters of the Jordan, and landed them at 
last, after many struggles, in the land of promise. 
It began in Genesis and ended in Eevelation. 
Like the ladder Jacob saw, its foot rested on 
the earth, but its top was lost amid the splen- 
dors of the skies. This was our sermon, and 
we made it ring through the vallies and the hills 
of our native county. We did not steal it. We 
came by it honestly. It came down to us, in 



Autobiography. 57 

regular descent, as an inheritance from our 
fathers. It was mighty in their hands "to the 
pulling down of strong holds ;" it had not lost 
its power when we began to wield it. We were 
in the habit of having two sermons at every 
meeting*; and the man who had the first oppor- 
tunity of speaking exhausted our whole stock 
of material, and left the other nothing to say. 
As the phrase was, he "had no liberty" that day. 
"We equalized the thing, however, by occupying 
this coveted position on alternate days. We 
pursued for awhile the path trodden hard by 
the feet of our predecessors ; but by and by, we 
attempted to cut out a track for ourselves, in 
which our own unfettered thoughts might run. 
After all, it is questionable whether, at any pe- 
riod of our lives, our ministry was more effec- 
tive than in these imperfect efforts, which we 
dignified by the name of preaching. $ur ser- 
mons were adapted to the circumstances which 
surrounded us ; our whole souls were absorbed 
in the work; it was a time of extraordinary 
refreshing ; it seemed to us as if the very stones 
were ready to cry out ; the power of God was 



58 Life of Rev. Daniel Witt. 

among the people ; and He was pleased to make 
the simple truth we proclaimed effectual to the 
salvation of sinners. The treasure, it is true, 
was in earthen vessels ; the priceless gem was 
stuck in vile clods of the ground, that our 
thoughtless pride might be abased, and the ex- 
cellency of the power appear to be of God, and 
not of us. 

Sometime during this summer of 1822, an 
event occurred which I ought not to pass over 
in silence, as it contributed largely to the safety 
and the felicity of my life. We were attending 
a meeting at Hatcher's meeting house, and had 
spent the night at a brother White's, who lived 
in that neighborhood. In the morning, as the 
custom was, a decanter of spirits was set be- 
fore us, with sugar and water, and we were in- 
vited to partake of it. We were in the habit of 
tasting, occasionally, of the insidious cup ; but 
I do not now recollect whether on this occa- 
sion we drank or not. We were led into a 
conversation on the subject. We concurred in 
the opinion that it was not only a useless habit, 
but that it was fraught with pernicious con- 



A utob iography. 59 

sequences. We then and there, on a bright 
and beautiful Sabbath morning, mutually re- 
solved, to abstain, during the remainder of 
our lives, from the use of intoxicating liquor 
as a beverage, and to use it only as a medicine, 
if used at all. We pledged ourselves each to 
the other, in a hearty shaking of hands ; and 
that sacred pledge we have religiously kept for 
half a century. Several things had occurred 
which, in their combined influence, tended to 
bring me to this determination. 

1. There had been a case of trouble in my 
own family, growing out of this indulgence. 
Although but a boy, it shocked me exceedingly, 
and made the impression on my mind, that a 
practice attended with so much mischief, and 
bearing such bitter fruit, ought to be abandoned. 

2. Some years before this time I listened to 
a sermon from a distinguished Presbyterian 
minister on the use of intoxicating liquors. 
His text was, "Do thyself no harm." He 
traced the evils of intemperance, from the first 
sparkling, tempting cup, to the bloated face — 
the ruined health — the impoverished family, 



GO Life of Rev. Daniel Witt 

and the soul for ever lost. He calculated its 
cost. He pictured, in glowing colors, its 
deadly influence on national, family, and in- 
dividual happiness. I never saw the thing in 
that light before. The force of his arguments, 
and the melting pathos of his eloquence, con 
vinced my judgment, and overpowered my 
heart. He left an impression on my mind which 
time could not efface ; and although that " old 
man eloquent" has long ago turned to dust, I 
still hold in grateful remembrance the honored 
name of James Turner, who first taught me 
the perils of drinking, and turned my thoughts 
and purposes in a proper direction in regard 
to this great evil. 

3. There had been some recent sad instances 
of departure from strict sobriety among some 
of the ministers of my acquaintance. Men of 
high character and standing in the Church ; 
who had labored long and successfully ; who 
were regarded as patterns of piety ; and who 
were supposed to be beyond the reach of 
temptation, fell under the fatal fascination of 
the cup, injured the cause of Christ, and 



Autobiography. 61 

brought dishonor and ruin on themselves. 
With these considerations weighing on my 
mind, I determined, as the only sure means of 
safety, to taste not, touch not, and handle not, 
the accursed thing. 

My total abstinence in those days of dram 
drinking waked up discussion, and brought 
with it some reproach. Neither the discussion 
nor the reproach altered my purpose. I at- 
tended during this year a meeting of the Eoan- 
oke Association, in the county of Pittsylvania. 
On Saturday evening, after the Association had 
adjourned, a large company assembled at a 
house in the neighborhood, for the purpose of 
spending the night. As a matter of course, the 
inevitable bottle was produced, and ministers 
and members crowded the sideboard. I was in- 
vited to join them. I declined, and had to 
give my reasons. I was considered by most 
persons present as far gone in ultra Pharisa- 
ism ; but there was one man there upon whom 
my example was not lost. From that day to 
the day of his death, Abner W. Clop ton re- 
frained from the use of spirituous liquors. 



62 Life of liev. Daniel Witt 

I cannot now recollect how it was that I 
overleaped the limits of my native county, and 
began to exercise my ministry in the regions 
beyond. I might have been floated along by 
the tide of religious feeling which overspread 
the country ; or I may have been guided by the 
fathers who encouraged my early efforts, and 
upheld me in my weakness by their sympathy 
and advice. It came to pass, however, that I 
was very soon traversing the counties of Frank- 
lin, Henry, Patrick, Pittsylvania, and Campbell, 
in all of which the work of the Lord had broken 
out, and in many of the churches, seemed to be 
sweeping everything before it. It was a time 
never to be forgotten; and now that age is 
upon me, and the young hopes that warmed 
my breast in other years have expired, and all 
the glitter of life is gone, it pleases me well to 
think of those happier days, when the "pleasure 
of the Lord prospered in my hand." They form 
a green spot in the desert of life, and are placed 
away in my memory, as precious treasures of 
the soul. 

In the winter of 1822-3, my name was men- 



A utobiography, 63 

tioned by some member of the Legislature from 
the tipper country to brother Peter Dupuy, of 
Richmond, who invited me to the city, and re- 
quested me to make his house my home. I 
accepted the invitation, and without a dollar in 
my pocket, started on a trip of one hundred 
and fifty miles, without ever thinking of any 
difficulty in reaching my destination. Sure 
enough I preached my way down James River, 
and arrived in due time at the house of my aged 
brother, and was kindly received, and most hos- 
pitably entertained during my stay. Here I 
not only preached in the church and in private 
houses, but had the privilege and pleasure of 
becoming acquainted with Father Courtney, the 
patriarch and the founder of the First Baptist 
Church.* He was then bowed down under 
the infirmities of old age, and soon after passed 
away. I was deeply impressed with his ven- 
erable appearance ; his slow, tremulous voice ; 
and the words of admonition which fell from 

* He was not the founder, but the second pastor, to 
whose long continued labors the church was largely in- 
debted for its growth and prosperity. 



64 Life of liev. Daniel Witt. 

his lips. I preached myself back to my home, 
with my saddle-bags filled with books and my 
pockets with money. On my next visit I was 
accompanied by brother Jeter. We then be- 
came acquainted with the prominent ministers 
of the lower country, and a wider door of use- 
fulness was opened to us in various parts of the 
State. 

In reviewing the current of events which 
swept along with these times, I am impressed 
with the fact, that this period constituted an 
era in the history of our denomination in the 
State. My own ministry may have had little 
or nothing to do with it ; but there was an as- 
semblage and concurrence of circumstances, 
which, under their combined influence, gave an 
upward tendency to our affairs, and commenced 
an influence which is felt to the present hour. 

1. A new sense of Christian obligation was 
awakened in the churches. A long season of 
spiritual apathy had pervaded the country. The 
Christian brotherhood, however sound they 
might have been in the faith, were certainly 
sound asleep. The do-nothing system every- 



Autobiography. 65 

where prevailed. It grew out of a misconcep- 
tion of Christian duty ; and might have been fed 
and fostered by the imperfect teaching of the 
times. The great awakening, which worked it- 
self into every nook and corner of the land, 
began, but did not complete the correction of 
this evil. New views, however, were introduced 
of personal duty to the cause of Christ, and 
many minds were anxiously inquiring, " Lord, 
what wilt thou have me to do f ' 

2. A higher grade of ministerial talent, and 
ministerial culture, toas demanded. We can 
hardly hold in veneration too high the fathers 
whose self-denying labors laid the foundation 
of our present prosperity. They were God- 
fearing men. They were moved by noble im- 
pulses. They sacrificed ease, and indolence, and 
fortune, and reputation, to advance the cause 
of the " sect everywhere spoken against." They 
deserve to be held in everlasting remembrance. 
But, however well adapted their gifts might 
have been to the people and the tastes of their 
day, the increase of education, and the diffusion 
of light and of refinement, demanded another 



66 Life of Rev. Danial Witt. 

order of talents and higher intellectual culture. 
Our present institutions of learning, both literary 
and religious, have grown out of this deep-felt 
want among our people. There still live among 
us a few persons, who, contrasting our present 
ministry with the ministry of former times, in 
the fulness of grateful hearts exclaim, " What 
hath God wrought !" They may well consent 
to go into eclipse, when brighter lights are 
shining about them. 

3. With this demand for increased cultivation 
in the ministry, there came new views in regard 
to ministerial support. During the last, and 
the early part of the present century, I do not 
suppose there was a single pastor in the State, 
in city or country, who received anything like 
an adequate support. Our people gloried in a 
free gospel, and our preachers gave it to them 
"without money, and without price." This 
state of things grew out of the recollection of 
colonial times, when a godless clergy wrung 
their last pound of tobacco a from churchman 
and dissenter, and when their cupidity, and 
intolerance, and persecution, and impiety, were 



Autobiography. 67 

the scandal of the country. Our ministers ran 
to the opposite extreme, and thus made void a 
law of Christ. Nor can it be denied that other 
causes contributed their influence to bring about 
this result. It is humiliating to know, and it 
seems like a libel on human nature to say it, 
that people are less inclined to pay for religious 
privileges and blessings than for anything else. 
It was a bold and adventurous experiment 
which Jeter and myself made, when, abandoning 
every secular pursuit, we threw ourselves on the 
Providence of God and on the people, and went 
forth, not knowing what should befal us, and 
having no promise of compensation for our 
ministerial labors. I would record it, in grati- 
tude to God, and for the purpose of encouraging 
others, toe have never vxinted for any good 
thing from that day to the present. Now better 
counsels prevail ; everybody acknowledges the 
obligation to support the gospel ; and our sala- 
ries, meagre though they be, are abundant, 
compared with the absolute nothingness of 
those in other days. 

4. About this time the General Association of 



68 Life of Rey}. Daniel Witt 

\ Irgin ia was organized, and with it came tract, 
temperance, and Sabbath school societies, and 
that whole system of instrumentalities which, 
under God, has converted the wilderness into 
the garden of the Lord. Before this time Luther 
Kice had returned from India, and under his 
soul stirring appeals the General Convention 
had been organized. He now strode the country 
with the tread of a giant. Virginia he loved to 
call his home, and no where else was he more 
welcome, or more efficient in every good word 
and work. He was always present at the meet- 
ings of the General Association. And who 
ever heard him speak without having his soul 
stirred to acts of benevolence, and who ever 
heard him pray without mentioning missions, 
and the Columbian College ! With him were 
associated such men as Semple, and Broaddus, 
and Baptist, and Kerr, names which would have 
shed a lustre on any age, or any people. They 
have all now reached their home; but their 
work remains. Under their auspices, the Gen- 
eral Association began its career ; and though 
feeble in its infancy, " the little one has become 



. I utobiography. 69 

a thousand." I need not say a syllable in regard 
to the blessed work which it has done in every 
part of the State. Its history is written in the 
conversion of thousands; its fruits will grow 
to the end of time, and through eternal ages. 

5. About this time a dozen young men, in 
different parts of the /State, entered the minis- 
try. It was such an accession to the strength 
of the ministerial corps of the State as had 
not occurred from the beginning of its history. 
Unlike their predecessors, the most of them 
made the single work of preaching the gospel 
the whole business of their lives. They were 
all connected, in some way or other, and at 
some period or another, with the General As- 
sociation. That body opened a field for the ex- 
ercise of their gifts, and sustained them by its 
means when they had no means of their own- 
By a singular Providence, most of them have 
been preserved, "and remain until this present, 
though some of them have fallen asleep." After 
nameless sufferings during the late cruel war, 
George and Howell escaped from earth, and 
now rest from their labors. It was a pleasure 



70 Life of Rev. Daniel Witt. 

to be associated with that band of brothers, 
who, with one heart and one soul, have labored 
for half a century to promote the kingdom of 
Christ among men. Nor is it less pleasant to 
know that, as the furrowed face and whitened 
head hold out signs of decay, men of finer op- 
portunities and greater promise stand ready to 
seize the implements as they fall from their 
hands, and prosecute the work which they must 
leave ere long. Well may we all "thank God, 
and take courage." 

After the formation of the General Associa- 
tion in 1823, brother Jeter and myself were ap- 
pointed its first missionaries. The field assigned 
us was the western part of Virginia, and our 
track lay through the - counties of Franklin, 
Henry, Patrick, Montgomery, Grayson, Giles, 
Wythe, Monroe, Greenbrier, Pocahontas, Alle- 
ghany, Bath, Rockbridge, and Botetourt. It 
was at first an exploring trip, and in prosecut- 
ing it we met with many difficulties. The 
country was unknown to us, and we were en- 
tirely unknown to the people. We worked our 
way among the mountains and hills, preaching 



Autobiography. 71 

in any meeting house which might be opened to 
us, and often at private houses, into which we 
were kindly received, and invited to hold re- 
ligious services. We were greatly assisted in 
our tour by the information which we received 
from Eev. Robt. Tisdale, a minister who had 
recently left east Virginia, and settled beyond 
the mountains. He travelled with us, intro- 
duced us in places where he was acquainted, 
and directed us to neighborhoods where there 
was destitution, and in which there seemed to 
be an opening for usefulness. He was a man 
of plain preaching talents, but of indefatigable 
industry ; and his ministry was not without 
fruit, in the uncultivated regions in which he 
lived. We were kindly received everywhere, 
and found the spiritual destitution of the 
country so great that we were greeted with a 
hearty welcome by all denominations of Chris- 
tians, and often by those who made no preten- 
sions to Christianity. We preached in the log 
cabins of the poor, in the court houses, and 
wherever we had the opportunity of proclaiming 
the "glorious gospel of the blessed God." I 



72 Life of Bev. Daniel Witt. 

wish to mention here the name of a venerable 
old Presbyterian gentleman, who lived in the 
comity of Greenbrier, and who received me 
into his house with true Christian cordiality, 
and ministered to my comfort and usefulness 
by every means within his reach. His spacious 
parlor was one of my regular preaching places ; 
his purse was open to supply my wants; his 
home, with all its comforts, was my home ; 
and all this kindness continued without inter- 
ruption during the whole period of my mis- 
sionary life, and until the death of Major 
Pogue. Nor was this a solitary instance of 
kindness in the experience of those days. 

We found, in the region of country men- 
tioned above, a few feeble Baptist churches, the 
strongest and most influential of which was 
the church worshipping at Alderson's meeting- 
house, in Greenbrier county. This church, 
founded by a minister of that name very many 
years ago, still lives, and has exerted a fine 
influence over the religious interests of sur- 
rounding neighborhoods, and has sent out 
some of our most eminent and useful min- 



Autobiography. 73 

isters. We traversed whole counties in which 
there was no Baptist preaching, or preacher, 
and in which we rarely met a member of our 
own church. A different state of things pre- 
vails now. " The solitary place has been made 
to rejoice, and blossom as the rose." Churches, 
little centres of influence, dot the land. Bright, 
sunny spots, where all was darkness then, now 
shed a light which cheers our hearts as we 
behold it, and which gives promise of a broader 
illumination by and by. 

About this time, the anti-missionary spirit 
began to develope itself amongst many min- 
isters and churches of the upper country. It 
is difficult to believe that good men, whose 
whole lives had been devoted to the advance- 
ment of the cause of Christ, should have 
arrayed themselves among the earnest op- 
posers of the spread of the gospel. Yet so it 
was. Men of intelligence, and piety, and in- 
fluence, through some strange misconception 
of Christian duty, or some bewildering pre- 
judice, opposed with all their might the oper- 
ations of their missionary brethren, and even 



4 

7dt Life of Rev. Daniel Witt. 

withdrew from them the hand of Christian 
fellowship. It was in the spirit of bitter and 
unconquerable prejudice that the question was 
once addressed to me by one of the most 
prominent of these opposers, " Have you hired 
yourself out to preach? " The whole scheme 
of benevolence and evangelization adopted by 
the General Association was ascribed to mer- 
cenary motives, and those who prosecuted it 
were supposed to be corrupted by the love of 
money. A long and painful controversy grew 
out of this subject, and hearts once united in 
love were severed forever by the feelings which 
were engendered by the dispute. With the 
teachings of the Scriptures before us, and the 
impulses of Christian love and zeal in our 
hearts, it does seem to us, now, like frenzy and 
infatuation. But after a long experience and 
observation have made us better acquainted 
with the weaknesses of our poor human nature, 
we are less surprised at any of the strange 
positions which it assumes. 

At the time about which I am writing there 
was a widely extended impression that the 



A utobiography. 75 

people of western Virginia were inferior, in 
many respects, to the people who lived east of 
the mountains. My first missionary trip cor- 
rected it. There might not have been, and 
probably there was not, at that time, as much 
intellectual culture. There was not as much 
refinement among the masses of the people. 
Eastern Virginia enjoyed many advantages 
which were denied the hardy sons of the 
mountain regions. But the God of nature has 
made no difference between east and west in 
the bestowment of his natural gifts ; or, if a 
difference exists, it is rather in favor of those 
who roam over the hills and breathe the 
mountain air. Is it because the sublimities of 
creation, and the bracing atmosphere, and the 
primitive and industrious habits of the people, 
are more favorable to the making and the 
development of men ? In illustration of what 
I am saying, take the county of Bedford for an 
example. It lies at the base of the Blue Bidge, 
and is overlooked by the "Flat Top" and 
"Peaks of Otter" mountains. There seems 
to be nothing in that rough and stony region, 



7G Life of Rev. Daniel Witt 

or in the character of its inhabitants, or in the 
facilities for improvement which it presents, to 
give to it a superiority over other places ; and 
yet no county in the State has been more 
fruitful in the production of distinguished men. 
The bar and the bench, the senate and the 
pulpit, the halls of science and the exploits of 
statesmanship, all bear witness to the ample 
wealth of mind which she has conferred on her 
sons. God is the author of every noble intel- 
lectual and moral endowment, wherever and in 
whomsoever it is found ; and he showed me, in 
my first acquaintance with the people of the 
western counties, as he did Peter in a vision 
long years ago, "that I should not call any 
man common or unclean."* 

* The impression referred to existed, it is presumed, 
only to a limited extent. The county referred to by 
Dr. Witt as furnishing evidence of its incorrectness, is 
in Eastern and not Western Virginia. Bedford is re- 
markable for the number of preachers born within its 
limits ; but it must yield the honor to other counties. 
Albemarle, for example, for being the birth place of 
eminent lawyers, judges, statesmen, and scholars. No 



Autobiography. 77 

Having completed our exploring tour in the 
western counties, ascertained the destitution, 
and selected the most promising fields for mis- 
sionary labor, we wended our way through the 
South Eastern portion of the State, to look 
out the destitution there, to preach to the peo- 
ple, and to report to the Board of the General 
Association, which was to hold a meeting in the 
fall, in the county of King & Queen. Acting 
under instructions, we traversed the counties of 
Campbell, Prince Edward, Lunenburg, Bruns- 
wick, Dinwiddie, Sussex, Southampton, Isle of 
Wight, James City, York, Gloucester, Matthews, 
Middlesex, and King & Queen, in which last 
named county we had the pleasure of holding 
a conference with the Board, of reporting to 
them the whole of our proceedings, and the 

governor of the State, senator of the United States, 
judge of the Court of Appeals, or professor in the Uni- 
versity of Virginia, so far as I can remember, was* born 
in Bedford. It is, however, a border county of Eastern 
Virginia, and noted for the number of good, able and 
useful men that have been nourished and trained in it. 



78 Life ofJiev. Daniel Witt. 

information which we had been able to gather 
in regard to the most inviting fields for the oc- 
cupancy of our missionaries. 

This trip differed widely from the one we 
had just finished beyond the mountains. It is 
true there were many waste places, and much 
want of ministerial labor then, as there is at the 
present time, in this portion of our State ; but 
there was a continuous line of churches, from 
the beginning to the end of our tour, so that 
we found meeting-houses in which to preach 
every day, and affectionate brethren with whom 
to mingle. No respectable minister of the gos- 
pel ever formed a connexion with the churches 
of Eastern Virginia, who did not have reason to 
feel that he had a home in their warm hearts, 
and who was not the sharer of a generous and 
unbounded Christian hospitality. In the Provi- 
dence of God, in subsequent years, we were 
made more intimately acquainted with this part 
of the Lord's vineyard, and the people who lived 
in it. 

At this meeting of the Board, a question was 
agitated and settled, of vast importance to me, 



A utobiography. 79 

and which, perhaps, has contributed more than 
any other event of my life, to give complexion 
and character to my ministry. From the be- 
ginning of our ministry, brother Jeter and my- 
self were deeply conscious of our want of quali- 
fications for the great work in which we had 
engaged. We thirsted for a larger mental cul- 
ture, and for a more thorough theological train- 
ing. Through the kindness of Luther Eice, an 
opportunity was presented for the acquirement 
of a collegiate education ; and the question was, 
whether we should leave a work we loved, and 
fields already whitening for the harvest, and 
immure ourselves in a college for four or five 
years ; or, whether, with all the unfitness of 
which we were painfully conscious, we should 
continue to prosecute the ministry which we 
* had begun. The subject was presented, for 
consideration and settlement, to our friends, 
Semple and Broaddus. We had unbounded 
confidence in their judgment. To us, their 
words were as if an angel spake, and their 
opinions were held second only to the words of 
inspiration. They decided against the collegiate 



80 Life of Rev. Daniel Witt. 

course of study, for two reasons, one of them 
applicable to us both, the other peculiar to 

nt'/S&lf 

1. There was, at this time, an urgent call for 
ministerial labor in almost every part of the 
State. The older ministers were passing away, 
and but few were coming forward to take their 
places. The General Association had just been 
formed, and we were the only persons who had 
offered themselves, to cultivate the great field 
which spread itself out before us. Our ad- 
visers thought that the God of nature had be- 
stowed upon us gifts which might be made use- 
ful in His service, even with the small measure 
of education which we possessed. In view, 
therefore, of the exigency of the times, and the 
apparent necessity of the case, it was deter- 
mined, wisely or unwisely, that we should 
abandon the idea of a collegiate course of study, 
and continue in the field. We acquiesced the 
more readily in this decision of our brethren, 
because our whole souls were fired with a desire 
to preach the gospel, and nothing was so pleas- 
ant to us as the privilege of doing it. Had we 



Autobiography. 81 

seen things then as we see them now, our 
course might have been different. But u there 
is a divinitly which shapes our ends, rough hew 
them as we will." We willingly laid upon the 
altar of our Master the prospect of reputation, 
position, and usefulness too, in its largest meas- 
ure, for the purpose of meeting an emergency 
in the Providence of God. 

2. In my own case, weakness of bodily con- 
stitution, and very great delicacy of health, 
seemed to hold out manifest tokens of an early 
death. At that period began the development 
of a strange nervous weakness, which has never 
forsaken me, and which has made life one long- 
period of suffering, diversified, it is true, by 
many seasons of exquisite enjoyment. At that 
time, no one supposed that I would live to be 
thirty years old. Such was the deliberate per- 
suasion of M. D.'s and D. D.'s ; and I concurred 
in the opinion. It was thought it would never 
do to take four or five years from a life which 
promised to be so brief, and devote them to at- 
tainments so soon to be buried in the grave. I 
well recollect the figures of our venerated father 



82 Life of Rev. Daniel Witt. 

Semple, as he calculated the probable length of 
my life, and advised me to make the preaching 
of the gospel the single object of all my time 
and all my talents. It seems as great a wonder 
to me now, as it would have been to him then, 
that "a harp of thousand strings should keep 
in tune so long." 

In accordance with the views of our brethren, 
I was placed under the tuition of brother Sem- 
ple for a few months, and brother Jeter was 
sent in another direction, with similar views. 
It was expected that, after this short season of 
study should expire, we would resume our mis- 
sionary operations. 

And now occurred the first separation be- 
tween brother Jeter and myself. It can, how- 
ever, hardly be called a separation, since we were 
as closely identified in work and in soul as we 
had been at any former period. Occasional 
visits, and a constant correspondence, kept 
alive the glow of love in our hearts, and fur- 
nished a substitute for the more intimate per- 
sonal intercourse of other times. Indeed, con- 
genial spirits cannot be disunited. Overleaping 



4 1 utobiography. 83 

time and space, they mingle thoughts and affec- 
tions, while the bodies which they inhabit are 
parted far asunder. From our first acquaint- 
ance, and especially from the beginning of his 
ministry, he had given unmistakable tokens of 
the eminent ability in his chosen profession to 
which he soon attained. With a discriminating 
and logical mind ; with an ambition chastened 
by the sanctifying power of the Spirit of God ; 
with a consuming desire for the salvation of 
souls and the glory of God ; and above all, with 
a heart-felt and pervading piety, it was impos- 
sible but that his preaching should be both 
attractive and profitable. Without cultivating 
the graces of oratory, he often soared above the 
clouds. With a dauntless resolution which 
nothing could shake, he proclaimed the grand 
old doctrines of the gospel ; and wherever he 
went, the power of his preaching was felt and 
acknowledged. In our journeyings through the 
land, I often had occasion to make this entry in 
my journal: "To-day, Jeter preached like an 
angel ; I preached like a fool." No mean, little 
jealousy of each other was permitted to burn 



84 Life of liev. Daniel Witt. 

in our breasts. Each rejoiced in the success of 
the other, and did whatever he could to pro- 
mote his welfare. A reproach cast upon one 
was felt by the other as a reflection on himself, 
and would have been resented as a personal 
offence, if we had allowed ourselves to indulge 
in resentments. Many incidents of this period 
of our lives have been circulated far and wide ; 
some of them are true ; some of them are partly 
true, but colored into falsehood ; and the most 
of them are false from beginning to end. It is, 
however, a pleasant employment, in the evening 
of life's short day, to look back on the deeds of 
its morning hours. Nor is it less amusing, now 
that it is all over, to think of the humiliating 
failures we often made, when we were most 
anxious to succeed, and which laid our vaunting 
pride in the dust. But I trust that something 
more pure and holy than earthly fame formed 
the constraining motive of our lives, and made 
us what we were, and are. 

In pursuance of the line of conduct marked 
out by the Board, I commenced a brief course 
of literary and theological study at the house, 



4 1 utobiography. 85 

and under the teacliing of our venerated father 
Semple. Perhaps it is hardly proper to call it 
a "course of study " as it lasted but a few 
months, and was intermingled with constant 
pulpit efforts in King & Queen and the adjoin- 
ing counties. The people of this region, at that 
time, were a church-loving, and a church-going 
people. They were also distinguished for a 
warm hearted and generous hospitality, which 
seemed to know no bounds. My preceptor 
carried me with him to all his meetings. We 
were followed about by great crowds of people ; 
and instead of the seclusion of study, I was 
constantly engaged, either in some public reli- 
gious service, or in partaking of the princely 
entertainments furnished by our friends. But 
I pursued my religious and literary studies as 
best I could under the surrounding circum- 
stances, and am indebted to the opportunities 
which I then enjoyed for my first acquaintance 
with the languages, and for whatever contribu- 
tion I was able to make to my limited stock of 
theological knowledge. These studies were 
7 



86 Life of Rev. Daniel Witt 

afterwards continued under the teaching of A. 
W. Clopton, of Charlotte county, but with so 
many interruptions, that they amounted to little 
or nothing. I trust my learning has done me 
no harm ; I am sure it has done me but little 
good. I had too little of it to make me a pedant, 
and too much to become a fool. 

I may here record the impressions made upon 
my boyish mind by an intimate association 
with Semple and Broaddus, at this period of my 
life. They were, beyond all question, the most 
eminent of all our Virginia ministers of that 
day. The God of nature had conferred upon 
them rare intellectual endowments; and the 
careful cultivation of their gifts, superadded to 
the grace of an enlightened and whole-souled 
piety, gave a finished excellence to their char- 
acters which is not often seen. And yet no 
two men were more unlike. Semple was care- 
less in his dress and in his manners, and even 
in his language ; Broaddus was fastidiously nice 
in every respect. Semple, if a proper word were 
not at hand, would make one to give utterance 



Autobiography. 87 

to some great thought which had mastered his 
soul; the other never violated the rules of 
grammar, and would have been shocked beyond 
endurance if his words had not been as polished 
as his thoughts. The first was like a torrent 
rushing headlong down some craggy mountain 
side ; the other, like a smooth river, whose 
glassy surface was unruffled by a single ripple, 
and which moved its gentle current on, amid 
the beauty, and the fragrance, and the richness 
of the flowers and fruits which lined its banks. 
These eminent and holy men were life-long 
friends ; and when Broaddus exclaimed, in one 
of the closing sentences of his funeral oration, 
pronounced over the grave of Semple, " Brother 
of my soul, I shall see you again," he gave ut- 
terance, as well to the deathless affection which 
he entertained for his glorified friend, as to the 
expectation of a re-union with him above the 
skies. And now, when the tide of life runs low 
in my failing constitution, and unmistakable 
indications present themselves of my approach- 
ing end, it is pleasant to anticipate a meeting 



88 Life of Rev. Daniel Witt. 

with these friends of my youth in the beautiful 
land beyond the river. Allelujah I* 

The time allotted for my studies with Dr. 
Semple having expired, I was sent to the Pe- 
ninsula, with instructions to make Williams- 
burg my head-quarters, but to preach in the 
adjacent counties as opportunities for doing so 
might present themselves. There was no Bap- 
tist place of worship at that time in Williams- 
burg, and but very few Baptists. A group of 
sisters, without a solitary male member of the 
Church, received me into their houses with great 

* It may be proper to state that my own impressions 
of Semple and Broaddus correspond precisely with 
those of Dr. Witt, except as to his comparison of the 
former to a mountain torrent. In my view he was un- 
like such a stream. He was not impassioned, but 
calm ; not declamatory, but logical ; remarkable for the 
soundness of his judgment rather than the force of his 
appeals ; rather for the wisdom of his counsels than for 
the pathos of his descriptions. To my mind, he ap- 
peared, not so much like the dashing, roaring mountain 
torrent, as the clear, placid lake, from whose smooth 
surface all surrounding objects are truthfully reflected. 



Autobiography. 89 

cordiality, and did what they could to make me 
comfortable, and to give success to my ministry, 
while I remained among them. The Episcopal 
church, which was then without a preacher, was 
procured for a place of worship, and I occu- 
pied it every Sabbath, preaching during the 
week in the neighboring counties, from Charles 
City to "Warwick. My appointments were gen- 
erally attended by large and attentive congre- 
gations ; but, so far as I know, my preaching 
was not attended with any special result. There 
was certainly no visible shaking amongst the 
dry bones ; and if any good was accomplished, 
I shall have to wait until the revelations of the 
last day to be made acquainted with it. There 
are two things, however, in connexion with my 
residence in Williamsburg, of which I still retain 
a distinct recollection. I read through the 
JVevj Testament on my knees, and J gathered 
the few straggling sisters into a weekly meeting 
for prayer. The first may have been, and I 
trust was, of advantage to my own soul ; the 
second, I have recently been informed, has been 
kept up until the present day, and may have 



90 Life of Bev. Danid Witt. 

formed the nucleus of the Church which, was 
afterwards organized in the city. Who can 
tell what blessings these humble and long-con- 
tinued intercessions may have brought down 
from the " Hearer of prayer?"* 

* "7 read through the New Testament on my knees" 
One cannot understand that blessed volume better on 
his knees than in any other posture; but surely the 
spirit indicated by it ; the intense desire to learn ; the 
profound sense of the need of divine guidance ; and the 
earnest application to study, must be most favorable 
to the comprehension of its teaching. The man who 
reads the Scriptures on his knees will not be likely to 
neglect any opportunity, or any accessible means of ac- 
quiring a knowledge of them. It was by the humble, 
fervent, diligent study of the Bible, with few aids for 
understanding it, that he became an " able minister of 
the New Testament." 



Chapter il 



REMINISCENCES OF DR. WITT IN THE PERIOD 
EMBRACED BY HIS AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 



Contents : Reminiscences of his Family. — My 
Flrst Acquaintance with him. — His Populaeity and 
Success in the Ministey. — Soukces of his Powek. 



Chapter ii. 



REMINISCENCES OF DR. WITT IN THE PERIOD 
EMBRACED BY HIS AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 



'ITT has given a brief, but accurate and 
unvarnished, sketch of his early life. 
Many of the things mentioned by him 
came within my personal knowledge, and I can 
testify to the correctness of his statements. 
There were others, however, which he over- 
looked, or which his modesty caused him to 
suppress, or to notice slightly, that it is due to 
his memory to record. This service I must 
endeavor to perform, chiefly by drafts on my 
own memory. 

All that Witt says of his father and mother 
was true, and his praises of them they fully 
merited. With his mother, my acquaintance 
was not intimate ; but I have a distinct recol- 



94: Life of Hev. Daniel Witt. 

lection of her plain, neat appearance, and of 
her quiet, dignified manners. Her family was 
one of the most respectable in the county. She 
was a sister of the Kev. Samuel Brown of Rock- 
bridge county, Virginia, who had five sons that 
followed him, with distinction, in the Presby- 
terian ministry. To this brother, it is said, she 
bore a striking resemblance in features, as well 
as in intellectual and moral qualities. She was 
also aunt of John Thomson Brown of Peters- 
burg, whose brilliant talents inspired such high 
hopes, and whose early death was so deeply 
and generally deplored. 

With old Mr. Witt I was well acquainted. 
Residing in a rural district, and among a plain, 
uncultivated people, my knowledge of men was 
very limited ; but I well remember that Mr. 
Witt seemed to me to be, beyond all comparison, 
the most intelligent person that I knew. His 
conversation was entertaining and instructive, 
and in argument he had no compeer. 

Soon after I made a profession of religion, 
I fell into doubts whether the devil was a fallen 
angel. I stated my scepticism to the old man, 



Reminiscences. 95 

and endeavored to justify it from the Scrip- 
tures. He rebuked my presumption with a 
sharpness, which, if it did not profit me, I did 
not forget. On one occasion, he quite shocked 
me with what appeared to be an irreverent re- 
mark: "There is one passage of Scripture," 
said he, "that I could never make any sense of. 
I have never seen anybody that could make any 
sense of it ; and I do not believe that it has 
any sense in it : ' We do you to wit of the grace 
of God bestowed on the churches of Macedo- 
nia.' " I was confounded at the freedom with 
which he spoke of what I had been taught to 
consider the word of God ; but I could give 
him no aid in understanding it, and there was, 
probably, no man in the county who could. 
This incident showed that he read the Bible 
with his eyes open, and formed his own opinions 
as to its import. 

I was too young to judge soundly of Mr. 
Witt's intellectual powers. It was pleasant, 
therefore, to have my youthful impressions of 
them confirmed by a statement of Dr. William 
Brown, the nephew of Mrs. Witt. He says 



96 



Life of Rev. Daniel Witt. 



that he heard his father, Eev. Samuel Brown, 
mention that Dr. Archibald Alexander affirmed 
that he had never seen a man whose intellect 
so strongly resembled that of Jonathan Ed- 
wards as did that of Mr. Witt, and that it was 
very little inferior to the mind of the great 
metaphysician. 

Mr. Witt was, as stated in the autobiography 
of his son, a most uncompromising Baptist, and 
well furnished with arguments in support of his 
views, A fact that recently came to my know- 
ledge illustrates this feature in his character. 
Daniel's uncle, Rev. Samuel Brown, being in easy 
circumstances, proposed to take his nephew, 
I and have him educated with his own sons. 
Mr. Witt highly appreciated learning, was 
anxious to have his son educated, and had no 
prospect of affording him that advantage him- 
self ; but he promptly declined the offer, on 
the ground that Daniel would be brought un- 
der influences that would probably make him a 
Presbyterian. The stern old man preferred 
that his son should be an uneducated Baptist 
rather than a learned Presbyterian ! 



Reminiscences. 97 

Mr. and Mrs. Witt had a numerous family of 
daughters, the youngest of whom, Miss Alice, 
now resides at the old family homestead in 
Bedford. She inherited, in no small degree, 
the genius of her father, and the womanly vir- 
tues of her mother ; and by a life of piety, and 
devotion to good works, she has gained an en- 
viable reputation, and is loved and prized by 
the whole circle of her acquaintances. The 
other sisters were of unblemished character, 
and not less meritorious, it is presumed, than 
Miss Alice ; but they were not so well known 
to the writer. 

Daniel had a brother, older than himself, 
named Jesse. They were baptized at the same 
time, but the younger entered the ministry 
several years before the older. Jesse Witt, after 
laboring for some time successfully in his native 
county, was, for seven years, the acceptable pas- 
tor of the Baptist churches in Powhatan county; 
afterwards, he was employed, for a consider- 
able while, very usefully, as agent of the Bap- 
tist General Association of the State ; and sub- 
sequently removed to Texas, where he suddenly 



98 Life of Rev. Daniel Witt. 

died, in the year 1858. Public opinion was 
divided as to the comparative pulpit abilities 
of the two Witts. Their gifts differed, and it 
is not easy, and altogether unnecessary, to de- 
cide which excelled in preaching. Jesse was 
undoubtedly an able, laborious, and successful 
minister of Cbirst. He left his native State in 
the maturity of his mind, the fulness of his in- 
fluence, and the height of his popularity, and 
soon earned an honorable name in his adopted 
State. It has been affirmed, on unquestionable 
authority, that a governor of Texas pronounced 
him the most eloquent man in the State : a 
judgment, the correctness of which will be 
readily admitted by all who heard him preach, 
in his seasons of highest inspiration. 

As stated in the autobiography, my acquaint- 
ance with Daniel "Witt commenced with the meet- 
ing at Hatcher's meeting-house, so called after my 
venerable grandfather, Jeremiah Hatcher, in the 
year 1821. My recollection of him, at that time, 
is quite vivid. He was slender, frail, and strik- 
ingly neat, trim, and boyish in his appearance. 
On what small events important consequences 



Reminiscences. 99 

sometimes turn ! I remember definitely that 
my attention was drawn to him, and my desire 
to cultivate his acquaintance was awakened, by 
hearing him use the word " circuitous." It did 
not belong to the vocabulary of the plain, rural 
people among whom I lived. Its use indicated 
a degree of mental culture above that of my 
neighbors ; and as I had a strong aspiration for 
knowledge, I immediately sought his society. I 
found in him all that the use of the term im- 
plied, and more. Our friendship began at once ; 
and was through a long life, as intimate, as 
dear, and as confiding as that between Damon 
and Pythias. 

Against one misconstruction the reader must 
be carefully cautioned. Witt speaks in strong 
terms of his depravity and guilt. These expres- 
sions have reference to the purity of God and 
His law, by which standard he judged himself, 
and not to any vices to which he was addicted. 
A more amiable, upright, pure, unblamable 
youth has never been known. With any dis- 
honorable act he was certainly not chargeable. 
If he ever fell into any vice, I never knew it, 



100 Life of Rev. Daniel Witt. 

nor had reason to suspect it. It is questionable 
whether he ever said, or did aught, for which, 
with due allowance for youth, inexperience, or 
thoughtlessness, he had reason to blush. Yet, 
judging himself in the light of God's holy law, 
he deemed himself the vilest of sinners. 

Witt has given a pretty full account of his 
entrance into the ministry. His modesty, 
however, prevented him from stating the extra- 
ordinary popularity of his early ministrations. 
He was, in less than three years from the com- 
mencement of his ministry one of the most at- 
tractive preachers in the State. Among Baptist 
ministers he was unrivalled in popularity, ex- 
cept by Andrew Broaddus, Edward Baptist and 
John Kerr. Wherever he went, in the country 
or in the towns, crowds gathered to hear him 
preach, and hung with delight on his ministry. 
Few houses, under favorable circumstances, 
could contain his audiences, and he was fre- 
quently under the necessity of resorting to ar- 
bors and forests for their accommodation. In 
all the counties surrounding Bedford, his preach- 
ing awakened a pervasive and deep interest. 



Reminiscences. 101 

Several facts may be mentioned in proof of 
his uncommon popularity. A venerable brother, 
now living" in Texas, Kev. W. S. Fontaine, states 
that, when he was a lad, residing in Henry 
County, Va., Witt, then a mere stripling, made 
a preaching tour through that county ; and the 
curiosity and interest excited to see ancf to hear 
him were as general and as intense as would 
now be awakened by the visit of the President 
of the United States and all his cabinet. I ac- 
companied him on the trip, and well remember 
the large and attentive assemblies that gathered, 
on week days, to listen to the sermons of the 
boy preacher. 

A scene rises vividly before my mind, after 
the lapse of fifty years. When Witt and my- 
self first went into Franklin county, we had an 
appointment to preach at the house of Mr. 
Aquila Divers. It was in a sparsely settled 
neighborhood ; but the news had been widely 
spread that two boys from Bedford would 
preach. The facts, as is usual in such cases, 
had been greatly exaggerated. An intense 
curiosity to see and hear the juvenile strangers 
8 



102 Life of Rev. Daniel Witt. 

had been excited, and the people flocked from 
all the surrounding region to the meeting. 
There were probably five hundred persons in 
attendance. The house and yard were filled 
w T ith a plain, rustic, wide-awake, night- congre- 
gation. Witt preached. He felt deeply the 
importance and responsibility of the occasion, 
and laid off his coat and rolled up his sleeves, 
as one intent on business. This may seem 
strange to persons accustomed to the fastidi- 
ousness of the present day ; but it was nothing 
unusual at that time and in that region. I often 
saw ministers of piety, age, dignity, and repu- 
tation preaching, in hot weather, in their shirt 
sleeves. We must think that the custom is 
more rational and defensible than many of the 
fashions and ceremonies which accompany the 
preaching of the word in the present period. 
Witt removed his coat, not from vanity or affec- 
tation, but for comfort and convenience. Its re- 
moval meant earnestness and labor. Nor was 
there any disappointment in the case. I have 
forgotten the text and the sermon ; but the 
effect of the service, I well remember. When 



Reminiscences. 103 

the discourse was ended, there were suppressed 
weeping and sobbing throughout the audience, 
in the house and in the yard. It was the com- 
mencement of a revival, not like some modern 
revivals, that pass away as the morning dew ; 
but it spread far and wide, continued for 
months, and brought hundreds into the fold of 
Christ. No doubt but that, to this day, traces 
of that sermon may be seen in the county of 
Franklin. 

Dr. Witt has furnished an account of his first 
visit to Richmond. A few persons are yet living 
who remember it. His rustic dress, his juve- 
nile face, his unpolished manners, and his 
shrinking modesty, gave no great promise of 
his success as a preacher. Not many persons 
had ever heard of him, and th6se who had 
might well question whether the talents which 
elicited the admiration of a rural uncultivated 
population could meet the taste and endure the 
criticism of a city audience. It was a new and 
fiery ordeal for the young preacher; but he 
passed it without damage, and without diffi- 
culty. He was first invited to speak in prayer- 



i 



104 Life of Rev. Daniel Witt. 

meetings ; then to preach in private houses ; 
and finally he occupied the pulpit of the First 
Baptist, now the First African Church, then the 
largest house of worship in the city; and it 
was not spacious enough to hold his congre- 
gations. 

A year afterwards, Witt revisited the city, at 
the time of the formation of the Baptist General 
Association of the State. Semple, Eice, Bap- 
tist, Brown of Washington, and other promi- 
nent Baptist ministers of the day were present ; 
but not one of them awakened so profound an 
interest, or drew so large an audience, as the 
Bedford stripling. Others excelled him in 
scriptural knowledge, logical power, and in the 
arrangement of their discourses ; but none of 
them equalled him in gracefulness of elocution, 
fluency, pathos, and the power to charm, con- 
trol, and move an assembly. Among the rev- 
erend fathers, and before a large and miscella- 
neous audience, he fully sustained the reputation 
which he had won on his first visit to the city. 

In further confirmation of his popularity and 
pulpit power, I will describe a scene which oc- 



Reminiscences. 105 

curred a year or two after his second visit to 
Richmond. The Portsmouth Baptist Associa- 
tion was held at High Hills' meeting-house, in 
Sussex county, Virginia. Witt and Rev. Noah 
Davis, pastor of the Cumberland Street Baptist 
church, Norfolk, and father of Prof. N. K. Davis, 
of the University of Virginia, were chosen to 
preach on Lord's day. Davis, a few years older 
than Witt, well educated, an able and popular 
preacher, was selected to deliver the closing 
sermon, which at the Associational meetings 
was the post of honor. The congregation was 
large, the weather was pleasant, and expectation 
was on tiptoe to hear the young preachers. 
Witt preached from a favorite theme, John iii. 
16 : " God so loved the world," &c. He was 
in fine health, his nervous system was in good 
tune, the audience and the surroundings were 
inspiring, and he out-preached himself. He 
and his hearers were alike carried away by his 
subject. In the midst of a glowing descrip- 
tion of the crucifixion of Christ, he quoted, 
with thrilling effect, a stanza from the beautiful 
hymn of Doddridge, entitled, " Christ seen of 



10G Life o/Bev. Daniel Witt. 

angels" Apostrophizing these exalted spirits, 

he said : 

"Around the bloody tree, 

Ye pressed with strong desire, 
That wondrous sight to see, 
The Lord of life expire ; 

And could your eyes 
Have known a tear 
Had dropped it there, 
In sad surprise." 

If the eyes of angels could not shed a tear, 
there were few eyes in that assembly that were 
not in a melting mood. The preacher, in de- 
scribing the ascension of Jesus, quoted, with 
impassioned tones and earnest manner, the 
closing stanza of the hymn : 

11 When all arrayed in light 

The shining conqueror rode, 
Ye hailed his rapturous flight 
Up to the throne of God, 

And waved around 
Your golden wings, 
And struck your strings, 
Of sweetest sound." 

Witt closed his discourse, leaving his audi- 
ence filled with wonder and bathed in tears. It 



B( minisa noes. 107 

was impossible for any ordinary man to preach 
a ft or such a sermon, and in the presence of such 
an assembly. Eeaction was inevitable, and it 
soon came. Davis made a manly and vigorous 
effort to fill^his appointment. He delivered a 
sensible, solid and able discourse ; but it was 
impossible to sustain the interest, and hold the 
attention of the people. His inability to do so 
was nothing to his discredit; for afterwards 
Witt, at another association, with knowledge 
and experience greatly increased, made a simi- 
lar failure in attempting to follow Luther Bice, 
in one of the most powerful and sublime ser- 
mons that I have ever been permitted to hear. 
The reader very naturally desires to know 
the sources of young Witt's success and popu- 
larity as a preacher. Several causes contributed 
to the power and acceptableness of his ministry. 
His preaching really was intrinsically excellent. 
He preached truth, scriptural, vital, saving 
truth, and in a simple, earnest and affectionate 
manner. There was not much variety in his 
sermons ; but it was not needed. His labors 



108 Life of Rev. Daniel Witt 

were mostly itinerant, and among a plain people, 
who loved the gospel, but made no demands for 
learned, profound or eloquent sermons. His 
jDreaching would not have satisfied fastidious 
hearers ; but it was well suited to convert sin- 
ners and to comfort believers. In any age and 
in any country, it would have been prized by 
thoughtful, sensible, pious persons, intent on 
spiritual profit rather than amusement. 

Everybody had confidence in his sincerity and 
disinterestedness. His mild countenance, un- 
pretending manners, and humble appearance, 
disarmed criticism, and inspired confidence and 
respect. The juvenility of his appearance added 
greatly to his popularity. His sermons were 
good, bore a favorable comparison with those 
of the old preachers of that region, of well es- 
tablished reputation ; but it was not so much 
their merit, as that they should be delivered by 
such a boy, with so little training, and with 
such self-possession, fluency and force, that was 
the wonder. It awakened an admiration similar 
to that caused among the Jews by the ministry 



Reminiscences, 109 

of Jesus. They said : " How knoweth this man 
letters, having never learned?" Young minis- 
ters, too, at that time, were very scarce. I had 
seen but two, so far as I can recollect, and they 
were probably thirty years old. A young 
preacher was then, and in that region, a won- 
der ; and Witt, from the extreme youthfulness 
of his appearance, was the most notable of them 
all. 

Nothing, perhaps, contributed more to the 
popularity of the young Apollos than the great 
religious revival and excitement in which he 
was converted and commenced his ministry, and 
which preceded or accompanied him in all his 
itineracies. The people were eager to hear the 
gospel ; and he proclaimed it from a warm heart 
and with a ready tongue. His preaching, too, 
derived much interest from its experimental 
character. This kind of preaching would seem, 
to most persons in the present day, egotistic 
and unbecoming ; but it was according to the 
custom and the taste of the times. It had, too, 
the sanction of apostolic example. Paul re 



110 Life ofBev. Daniel Witt. 

peatedly told the circumstances of his conver- 
sion, substantially his experience, and the story, 
doubtless, made a strong impression in favor 
of Christianity. It extorted from the proud 
Agrippa, the well-known concession : "Almost 
thou persuadest me to be a Christian." Witt 
told the circumstances of his conversion ; his 
awakening ; his deep conviction of sin ; his in- 
ward struggles ; his hopeless endeavors to save 
himself : his sorrow for sin ; his confidence in 
Christ ; his fervent love to Him ; his abounding 
joy ; in short, the very story which he recorded 
so graphically in his autobiography, with beam- 
ing countenance, plaintive voice, and often with 
streaming eyes. His hearers felt that it must 
be true ; that the young man was on the right 
track ; and that it would be safe to follow his 
counsel and his example. 

The number of conversions that occurred un- 
der Witt's youthful ministry, it is impossible to 
estimate. No record of them was kept, or could 
have been kept. It is known that many who 
went to hear him through curiosity, returned 



Reminiscences. Ill 

to their homes to pray. Some who were 
amused at his unclerical appearance, forgot all 
about it while listening to his melting appeals 
and solemn warnings. We may reasonably con- 
clude that his early ministry was honored by 
hundreds of seals : souls converted to Christ, 
and made heirs of heaven. 



-a^^^faoi' 



Chapter in. 



DR. WITT'S MISSIONARY LABORS. 



Contents : Rev. James Leftwich. — Fikst Tour 
in the Valley of Virginia. — Extracts from Witt's 
Diary. — His Ordination. — Second Tour. — Return 
Home. — Meeting of the Strawberry Association. — 
Witt goes to his Field again. — Close of Missionary 
Labors. — Notes of a Sermon — Letter of Rev. R. B. 
Semple. 






Chapter hi. 



DR. WITT'S MISSIONARY LABORS. 



tOT I T T ' S autobiography closed with an ac- 
count of his short residence in "Williams- 
burg, in the winter of 1823-24. He 
returned to his paternal home, and after a few 
months spent in desultory labors in its vicinity, 
he and his friend, Rev. James Leftwich, under 
the appointment of the Board of the General 
Association, commenced their missionary tours, 
chiefly in the Valley of Virginia, but extending 
beyond the Alleghany mountains. Leftwich 
was a native of Bedford ; a few years older than 
Witt ; converted and baptized, in the late re- 
vival, in the county of Franklin ; an intimate 
friend and congenial fellow laborer of Witt, who 
had entered the ministry a year or two later. 
Leftwich became an able, useful and popular 



116 Life of Rev. Daniel Witt. 

minister of Christ, and died, in the county of 
Bedford, in the year 1852, in the vigor of his 
life, in the midst of his labors, and in the zenith 
of his influence, leaving a vacuum not easily 
filled. Previous missionary journeys, under the 
direction of the Board, were chiefly for the pur- 
pose of exploration ; but the tour of these young 
evangelists was intended to be earnest mis- 
sionary work. At that time neither the Board 
nor the missionaries had any experience in con- 
ducting their work. They followed the course 
then usually pursued by ministers in their evan- 
gelical and desultory labors. They had a long- 
train of appointments, embracing almost every 
day of the week, and frequently including the 
nights, extending through the counties of Bock- 
bridge, Augusta, Bockingham, Bath, Alleghany, 
Pocahontas, Greenbrier, and Botetourt. They 
scattered their seed over a large field, with very 
little prospect of reaping a harvest. It was a 
laborious, but still exciting mode of evangelism, 
whose fruits only eternity can reveal. It was, 
in truth, the Methodist itinerant system, with- 
out any provision for its performance. 



Missionary Labors. 117 

The 9th of July, 1824, the two young itiner- 
ants set out, equipped for horseback travelling, 
on their toilsome journey, no doubt profoundly 
impressed with the importance of their mission. 
Witt kept a brief journal of his travels and la- 
bors, mostly but a dry record of names and 
dates. It contains, however, some interesting 
statements, specimens of which will now be 
given. 

" July 9, 1824. —Left home and rode thirteen 
miles 1 to Mr. Eubank's. Brother Leftwich is so 
very unwell that he is unable to ride. 

4 'Lord, let Thy presence be my stay, 
And guard me in this dangerous way. " 

Help me to dispense the message of life to my 
fellow mortals, and, in this tour that lies before 
me, preach as for eternity, have an eye single 
to Thy glory ; and, oh ! attend the word de- 
livered in weakness to the hearts of them that 
may hear. 

"July 10. — Eode thirty miles to Lexington, 
where I preached at night. The congregation 
was not very large, but quite attentive. 

" July 11. — Preached to-day at the Baptist 
# 9 



118 Life of Rev. Daniel Witt. 

meeting-house in Eockbridge. The audience 
was tolerably full, and very attentive. After 
sermon, the Lord's Supper was administered, 
and a considerable solemnity seemed to pervade 
the minds of the people. In the evening, rode 
ten miles to Mr. Lusk's, where I was kindly en- 
tertained until the next morning. 

"July 12.— Had meeting to-day at a Mr. 
Forsyth's. A few Baptists, Seceders, Presby- 
terians, Methodists, and sinners composed the 
congregation; and although they were tmaf- 
fected, I could find no fault with the attention 
they paid. 

" July 13. — Preached at 3 o'clock to-day in 
Greenville, a little town in the county of Au- 
gusta. The audience was not very large, and 
but little engaged. Stayed all night with a 
Mr. Smith. 

" July 14. — Started for my appointment in 
Staunton this morning. When I reached town, 
I found that the appointment for preaching had 
been made at candle-light, and having an appoint- 
ment twenty-five miles off next day, I ordered 
the appointment [in Staunton] to be recalled, 



Missionary Labors. 119 

and rode twenty miles to brother Coffman's, in 
Rockingham. 

"July 15. — Had an appointment this morning 
at the Presbyterian meeting-house, in Harrison- 
burg ; but in consequence of the death of a 
young man, whose funeral I preached, the ser- 
mon was at the Methodist chapel. The con- 
gregation was large and attentive. There is 
regular preaching in this place by Presbyterians 
and Methodists; but in all this country the 
Baptists are a feeble folk. At four o'clock in 
the afternoon I preached at Coffman's meeting- 
house. 

"July 16. — Preached to-day at Mossy Creek 
meeting-house. The appointment was not 
generally known, and therefore there were but 
few people present. In the evening I preached 
at Captain Viger's, to an interesting congrega- 
tion. 

"July 17. — Eode this morning to Staunton, 
where I met brother Mason, who preached at 
candle-light. Stayed all night with Mr. Pat- 
terson.* 

* This Mr. Patterson was afterwards a prominent 



120 Life of Rev. Daniel Witt. 

"July 18. — Preached this morning and even- 
ing in Staunton, in the Presbyterian meeting- 
house. The congregation was tolerably full 
and attentive. We received eight black peo- 
ple by experience [for baptism]. Became ac- 
quainted with a respectable merchant who is 
halting between two opinions, and will, I think, 
finally become a Baptist." 

To follow the journal closely would be tedi- 
ous, and perhaps unprofitable. I will, there- 
fore, furnish only a few extracts from it: 

"July 25. — Preached to-day in Covington, to 
a good congregation. Oh ! what a blind worm I 
am ! I felt but little affected in time of wor- 
ship, and the people were as unaffected as the 
preacher. Lord, give me more of that zeal 
which is according to knowledge, and enable 
me to be more useful in the Church. 

"July 27. — Very unwell. Attempted to preach 
at Mr. Hickman's. After meeting, was bled ; 
but received very little benefit. 

member of the Virginia Legislature, and continued to 
the end of his life to be a warm friend and great admirer 
of Witt. 



Missionary Labors. 121 

"July 28. — l T nable to ride. Confined to my 
bed all day with a desperate cough and high 
Carer. Brother Leftwich attended to an ap- 
pointment at Mr. Bird's, and returned in the 
evening to the place where I was. 

"August 1. — Preached to-day at Huntersville 
to a large congregation. The people in the 
neighborhood of this place are unusually atten- 
tive to preaching; and we long for the time 
when the undefiled religion of Christ shall fill 
the hearts of those who are yet out of the ark 
of safety. 

"August 4. — Started for Bedford, and tra- 
velled nearly forty miles. Beached home on 
the 6th. On the 7th and 8th the Presbytery, 
selected for my ordination, met, examined, and 
ordained me. Lord, have mercy on me, and 
make me, by Thy grace, sufficient for preaching 
the gospel." 

After remaining a week in Bedford, and 
preaching four times, he entered on another 
missionary tour over the same ground that he 
traversed in the previous one. A few extracts 
from the journal are given. 



122 Life of Bev. Daniel Witt. 

"September 5. — A rainy day. Preached at 
the Warm Springs. The audience was com- 
posed of people from almost every part of the 
Union. We dined with a gentleman from 
Pennsylvania, a member of the Methodist 
Church. 

"September ll.-Another rainy day. Preached 
in Staunton at night to a considerable congre- 
gation. Here I met with brother Hiter, a 
preacher from Louisa, and brother Todd from 
Caroline. I prevailed on brother Hiter to 
preach a sermon, after which he set off for 
home. 

"September 12.— Preached to-day at the 
Presbyterian meeting-house (Staunton) to an 
overwhelming congregation, which was very 
attentive and orderly. I rode a few miles out 
of town to Mr. Kenny's, where I tarried all 
night. 

"September 13. — Another rainy day. Eode 
twenty miles to Brownsburg, where I preached 
at five o'clock to a large Presbyterian congre- 
gation. They are anxious that I should visit 
them frequently." 



Missionary Labors. L28 

This was Witt's second visit to the lower 
end of the Valley of Virginia, and it is quite 
obvious, from the above extracts, that the peo- 
ple were beginning to appreciate his talents . 
Crowds were anxious to attend his ministry. 

"September 18. — Preached to-day at Hvm- 
tersville, to a considerable congregation. At 
this place there is a dancing school just com- 
mencing, and as soon as the meeting was over 
a great part of the congregation returned to the 
ball-room, and commenced dancing. * * * 
Oh ! that I may be the honored instrument in the 
hands of the Almighty of bringing them to the 
knowledge of the truth. 

•' September 26. — A very rainy day. Preached 
to a large congregation at Mr. Bird's; heard 
the experience of a young lady, received her, 
and went to the water, where I baptized her. 
Although it rained very hard, the people stood 
patiently, and heard me explain the subject of 
baptism. Not a smile was seen in the whole 
company. I never saw a more solemn congre- 
gation." 

Witt completed his tour, and attended the 



124 Life of Rev. Daniel Witt. 

Strawberry Association, about the 1st of Oc- 
tober, at Hatcher's meeting-house, where he 
was first awakened to the importance of reli- 
gion. Concerning the meeting he made the 
following brief entry : 

" On Saturday, brother Lee (J. S., of Lynch- 
burg), preached the introductory sermon. Sun- 
day, brethren Mason, Hurt and Kerr preached. 
On Monday, Clopton (Abner W., of Charlotte 
county), Hurt and Tisdale preached. Nothing 
very interesting before the Association ; ap- 
pointed delegates to the next General Asso- 
ciation." 

This meeting was long held in remembrance 
by the people of the neighborhood for the 
extraordinary preaching on the occasion. Clop- 
ton, Hurt and Kerr preached with a clearness, 
eloquence and power, which had rarely, if ever, 
been equalled in that rural, mountain region. 

From the Association Witt returned to his 
field, and continued his itinerant ministrations, 
without any special results, until the 12th of 
November, at which date his journal closes. 

It contains copious notes of a sermon on Luke 



Missionary Labors. 125 

xvi. 30, 81. The following extract is given, not 
as a fine example of exegesis or of logic, but as 
a pretty fail' specimen of Witt's early preaching ; 
which, however, was always without the use of 
notes, and from the stores of a retentive mem- 
ory and the resources of a ready invention. 
After glancing at the impressive imagery of the 
parable, he says : 

" But while in this lamentable condition, he 
[the rich man] sees Lazarus in Abraham's 
bosom, and prays that he may be sent to cool 
his parched tongue, by giving him a drop of 
water. It is frequently said there is no hope in 
hell ; and the ingenious inquirer of the present 
day wishes to know, if there is no hope in that 
dreary region, why the rich man petitioned to 
Abraham; for petition is founded on expec- 
tation, and to ask for that which we have no 
no hope of receiving is an absurdity. There 
must, therefore, be hope in hell, or that un- 
happy man would never have prayed for the 
mitigation of his torment. This, we admit, is 
fair reasoning, sound logic ; but, from the same 
principle, we argue that the petition of the rich 






126 Life of Rev. Daniel Witt. 

man was commensurate with his hope. Had 
he hoped to be redeemed from the fire that is 
never quenched, his importunate prayer would 
have expressed it. But since he does not ask 
for redemption, but only for mitigation, we 
must reasonably suppose that that was all he 
hoped for; and although he was suffered to 
indulge this expectation for a moment, the 
answer of Abraham forever put to rest the de- 
lusive hope. He answered on two grounds : 

"First. The petitioner had enjoyed his good 
things on earth : he made gold, or something 
equally worthless, his god, while he neglected 
the great salvation, and must suffer eternal pain 
for the wrong he did, without ever being pre- 
pared for the enjoyment of heaven. 

"-Secondly. Abraham also informed him that 
the inflexible justice of God forever barred the 
gates of heaven against all offenders; telling 
him that there is a great gulf fixed, so that they 
who would pass from hence to you cannot; 
neither can they pass to us who would come 
from thence. 

" 'No passage from heaven to hell ! ' says the 



Missionary Labors. 127 

ingenious inquirer. * No passage from heaven 
to hell ! How, then, did the fallen angels, who 
once inhabited the world of bliss, get from 
there to hell 1 ' We do not say, nor did Abra- 
ham say, that there never was a communication 
between heaven and hell. There must have 
been a passage for the fallen angels to be 
hurled by the hand of the Almighty to the fire 
prepared for them ; but since that time there 
has been no communication between the man- 
sions of peace and the region of death. A gulf 
has been fixed which cannot be passed. 

" ' But,' says one, ' this is nothing but a para- 
ble.' There is no parable without meaning. 
To deny this would be to offer an insult to the 
Deity. Although it is a parable, can language 
be so much abused and perverted — can common 
sense be so much stultified — as that when it is 
affirmed, in a parable, that there is no passage 
from hell to heaven, that it means there is a 
passage? Why not believe Abraham? Why 
not believe that the punishment of the wicked 
is an everlasting punishment % But we are told 
that the words ' everlasting,' ' for ever and ever,' 



128 Life of Rev. Daniel Witt. 

and like expressions, are not synonymous with 
eternal, and do not mean endless duration. 
We admit that, when applied to the hills, and 
other natural things, their meaning is limited ; 
but this does not prove that they are never 
used to express the same meaning as ' eternal.' 

"If there is a time to come when all the un- 
happy souls who linger in hell are to be re- 
deemed, from the same principle of reasoning 
we may argue that the period will arrive in 
which the everlasting happiness of the saints 
will be destroyed, as the same term is used to 
express the duration of the happiness or misery 
of God's creatures. If the time should arrive 
when the saints shall cease to be happy, they 
must be chained in death or launched into the 
fearful gulf of annihilation. 

" The same reasoning is applicable to the 
Almighty. He is called the everlasting God ; 
and if the term is not used to express an eternal 
duration, the existence of God is limited. The 
period will arrive when He (I speak it with 
reverence) will be dragged from His throne, and 
consigned to the vortex of non-existence. 



Missionary Labors. 129 

" Here let me stop, and go no further. Only 
let me warn you, my hearers, against a doctrine 
so fatal in its consequences. I envy not the 
deluded soul that has embraced it. Sooner, 
far sooner, would I believe the 'father of the 
faithful,' than the men of vanity and lies, who 
have been trying for ages to build a bridge 
from hell to heaven, but have not yet been 
able." 

This chapter will be closed with a letter from 
Rev. R. B. Semple, D. D., to Daniel "Witt. It 
is given entire, partly because of the reputation 
of the writer, partly because it touches on the 
early history of the General Association, and 
partly because it discloses the estimate which 
the venerable Semple placed on the character 
and gifts of his young friend, Witt : 

MOEDINGTON, (SEMPLE'S KeSIDENCE,) 

January 29, 1825. 
Dear Brother Witt : Our Board [of the General 
Association] met on Saturday last, and attended to our 
business as far as we could ; but not having received 
any report from you or brother Leftwich, we could do 
nothing certain as to your case. Brother Broaddus 



130 Life of Rev. Daniel Witt. 

(Andrew) and myself were appointed a corresponding 
committee to carry several matters into effect. One 
was to procure preachers to occupy the "Williamsburg 
wilderness, made more destitute by the death of Elder 
Wood. There is in that evangelical barren a loud call 
for Mr. Daniel Witt to return and dispense to them the 
word of life. In consequence of that and other causes, 
the Board directed us to write to you, and invite you to 
come down and see us, and then go on and occupy that 
destitute section. We are also instructed to look out 
for laborers for other destitute parts ; and brother Jeter 
informed me that there was a brother Mills in your 
country, who, he thought, would be a suitable charac- 
ter for missionary purposes. We thought of annexing 
him to brother Leftwich for a mountain circuit, and of 
calling you to the lower country. We, however, could 
do nothing for the want of a communication from you. 
Do write immediately to me, and brother Broaddus 
also, and endeavor to come down to our next meeting 
of the Board in Essex, at brother Henley's, the fourth 
Saturday in March next. I am told that brother Lee 
has done nothing. The Board has directed us to re- 
quest him to take heed to the ministry allotted him. 
If, however, you have an opportunity, do you tell him, 
or write to him. Jeter is up to the mark, and is con- 
tinued up till June. Tisdale has also done all required. 
And we are persuaded that Witt and Leftwich have 



Missionary Labors. \\\\ 

also, exoepl a small use of the pen. Creath has not 
touched, that we have heard of. 

We have no important news with lis. Brother Blacky 
Montague is in very low health, and if he was not so 
useful a preacher, I should expect he would die. But 
then, you may say, look at Straughan. True, true ! 
Deep and unsearchable are the ways of God. Courtney 
and Wood are both departed since our last Association. 
There were only two senior preachers in the Dover As- 
sociation. Broaddus and others are my cotemporaries. 
It seems but yesterday since I entered the Association 
as a mere boy. Our days, how swift they are ! 

My love to brother Leftwich, who must consider this 
as addressed to him also. Also to his father, (Bev. 
William Leftwich,) much beloved. And may I add, to 
your father also, though unknown, yet well known. I 
value him upon what his son Daniel told me of him, 
and, I may add, not only for what Daniel said, but for 
what he is. If the son is a good specimen of the father, 
the old man need not blush. You see I am a little 
sportive this snowy weather. -Grace and peace, 

Ro. B. Semple. 



'Wo^W&Kf' 



Chapter iv. 



DR. WITT'S RESIDENCE IN CHARLOTTE 
COUNTY. 



Contents : Causes of his Removal to Char- 
lotte. — Rev. A. \V. Clopton. — Results of his 
Labors. — His Sickness. 



■wmm- 



10 



Chapter iv. 



DR. WITTS RESIDENCE IN CHARLOTTE COUNTY. 



i F T E E Witt had closed his missionary 
X;A, labors in the Valley, he went to reside 
with Kev. A. W. Clopton, in Charlotte 
county. Of his residence there — an interesting 
part of his life— I find no written information. 
It is not even known at precisely what time he 
removed to Charlotte. It must have been near 
the close of the year 1824. His missionary 
journal ended on the 12th of November of that 
year ; and a letter addressed to him under date 
14th February, 1825, by Eev. David Koper, of 
Kichmond, contains this statement: " I wrote 
to you the latter part of December last, and 
addressed my letter to Liberty ; but I under- 
stand from brother Collins that you have been 
some time in Charlotte." It is pretty clear, 



136 



Life of Rev. Daniel Witt. 



then, that near the close of the previous year 
Witt made his abode in Charlotte. 

The writer must depend almost entirely on his 
own recollections in recording the events of this 
brief period of Witt's life. It has already been 
seen that Clopton and Witt met at the Straw- 
berry Association, in Bedford, in October, 1824. 
Without specific information on the subject, it 
is almost certain that then and there arrange- 
ments were made, or, at least, commenced, for 
Witt's settlement in Charlotte. Clopton was 
desirous to have an assistant in the cultivation 
of his extensive and inviting field. That he 
should have selected Witt for his co-laborer, was 
what might have been expected. Among all 
the young ministers of Virginia, none possessed 
a more lovely spirit or more winning manners, 
or promised more efficient aid in the ministry, 
than he. On the other hand, he was anxious to 
have time for reading and study, under the in- 
struction of some able and faithful minister of 
Christ. No more inviting sphere for his min- 
istry could be found than Charlotte. Its inhab- 
itants were noted for their intelligence, refine- 



lit siidence in Charlotte. 137 

ment and hospitality ; and though the Baptists 
were not numerous in the county, they were 
increasing in number and rising in respectability 
under the efficient ministry of Clopton. Of all 
the pastors in the State, Witt might reasonably 
expect to derive the greatest advantage from 
association with him — from his preaching and 
from his private tuition. He was a graduate of 
the North Carolina University, a diligent stu- 
dent, a sound preacher, an indefatigable laborer, 
and one of the most devotedly pious men that 
I have ever known. He possessed a larger 
library of choice theological works, it is pre- 
sumed, than any Baptist minister of the State. 
That Witt should have accepted an invitation 
to become the co-laborer of such a minister, to 
share in his remuneration, and to enjoy the 
benefit of his example and teaching, is not 
surprising. 

Witt's residence in Charlotte was distin- 
guished rather by the diligence of his labors 
than by the intensity of his studies. He read 
and studied, as he had opportunity, under the 
guidance of his revered friend ; but so wide was 



138 Life of Rev. Daniel Witt. 

his field of labor, embracing not only Charlotte, 
but several of the surrounding counties, and so 
incessant were the calls on him for preaching on 
funeral and other occasions, beyond the limits 
of his regular ministry, that he could command 
but little time for the systematic culture of his 
mind. Meanwhile, his popularity was undimin- 
ished. His preaching everywhere attracted 
crowds, and called forth applause. It was more 
popular, but not more useful than that of his 
preceptor. 

It would be difficult to find two ministers; 
more unlike each other in their spirit, manners 
and style of preaching, than were Clopton and 
Witt. These differences, however, provoked 
neither envy nor discord between the "true 
yoke fellows." Never was there greater har- 
mony and affection between two laborers in the 
kingdom of Christ. Clopton viewed Witt with 
paternal fondness and pleasure ; and Witt looked 
up to Clopton with filial trust and reverence. 
Their only rivalry was, which should perform 
the most labor, and accomplish the greatest 
amount of good. 



Residence in Charlotte. L39 

There can be no question that Witt derived 
great benefit from his intimate association with 
Clopton. Indeed, it was impossible for any 
person voluntarily to associate with him and 
not be profited. Of all the men that I have 
known, he exerted the strongest and the most 
moulding religious influence. After being in 
his company for a single day, one would for 
weeks have a deeper sense than usual of the 
importance of divine things, and an increased 
fervency in prayer. For his memory Witt cher- 
ished, to the close of his life, the most profound 
veneration and the most grateful regard. 

Of the results of Witt's labors in Charlotte 
no certain information can be given. Acting 
as an assistant of Clopton, the latter did most 
or all of the baptizing, and very naturally re- 
ceived the chief credit for the success of their 
joint labors. There was.no great revival in the 
Charlotte churches while Witt served them; 
but much precious seed was sown, many plans 
of usefulness were formed, and many solemn 
religious impressions were made, the fruits of 
which only God can discern. Witt's abstinence 



140 Life of Rev. Daniel Witt. 

from strong drink had great influence on the 
views and course of Clopton, and was the re- 
mote cause of the formation of the Virginia 
Temperance Society, the second one organized 
in the country ; and organized, too, in entire 
ignorance of the existence of any other, and 
which for many years exerted a most beneficent 
influence. 

One event in the life of Witt, during his so j oum 
in Charlotte, must not be overlooked. He had, 
probably in the spring of 1825, an attack of sick- 
ness which brought him to the very verge of 
the grave. His life was despaired of by many. 
I was returning from Sussex, where I resided, 
to my paternal home in Bedford. Reaching 
within ten or fifteen miles of the house of Mr. 
Roach, the pleasant boarding place of brother 
Witt, I heard that he was ill — perhaps dead. 
It was just at the close of day ; the night was 
rainy and dark, and the streams were swollen 
and dangerous to cross ; but I resolved, if pos- 
sible, to see him that night. With some diffi- 
culty I procured a guide, and travelling through 
the darkness, along muddy roads, and through 



Beaidena in Charlotte. 141 

and over turbulent streams, I reached Mr. 
Roach's at a late hour of the night, to find my 
friend conscious, indeed, but suspended be- 
tween life and death. It afforded me a melan- 
choly pleasure to nurse him some days, until 
the disease had passed its crisis. His recovery 
was almost a miracle ; but God had more work 
for him to do, and was preparing him for its 
performance by the tribulation that works pa- 
tience, and experience, and hope. 



Chapter v. 



DR. WITT'S REMOVAL FROM CHARLOTTE 
TO PRINCE EDWARD. 



Contents : Reasons fob his Removal. — Forma- 
tion of Sharon Church. — Witt its First Pastor. — 
Happy Union. 



Chapter v. 



DR. WITT'S REMOVAL FROM CHARLOTTE 
TO PRINCE EDWARD. 



I 



JANIEL WITT never considered himself 
permanently situated in Charlotte. He 
resided there merely as an assistant of 
Clopton, to enjoy the benefit of his instructions, 
and to prepare himself for independent labors 
in another and an abiding field of useful- 
ness. He was waiting for the revelation of 
his life-work. It was not long before divine 
providence opened to him the path of duty. 

Clopton and "Witt were accustomed to ex- 
tend their itinerant labors into the portions 
of the surrounding country destitute of evan- 
gelical instruction. They waited for no call, 
except the danger of souls perishing for lack of 



146 Life of Rev. Daniel Witt. 

knowledge ; and claimed no reward, except the 
approval of their Master, and the sweet con- 
sciousness of doing good. Their heavenly 
commission was world-wide ; and they lacked 
not authority to preach the gospel, where they 
could find sinners to hear it. 

Prince Edward county adjoined Charlotte. 
The former, as well as the latter county, con- 
tained a population noted for their intelligence 
and respectability. The Hampden Sidney 
(Presbyterian) College was in the county of 
Prince Edward, and had moulded, to some 
extent, the character, tastes and manners of 
society. The eastern, or lower end, of the 
county was quite destitute of evangelical, es- 
pecially of Baptist, preaching. Sandy River 
church, an old framed, dilapidated, but spa- 
cious, colonial house of worship, occupied a 
central position in this region. It was open 
for preaching by all Christian denominations, 
and was occupied alternately by Eev. John H. 
Rice, D. D„ of the Presbyterian Church, and 
Rev. Mathew L. Dance, of the Methodist church. 
Thither divine providence directed the steps of 



Removal to Prince Edward. 147 

Witt He was then about twenty-five years 
old, but still had the appearance of a beardless 
youth. His preaching at once attracted great 
attention, and drew large congregations. His 
first sermon at Sandy Eiver, as stated in the 
Memorial Discourse, by Kev. T. W. Sydnor, 
D. D., delivered before the Appomattox Bap- 
tist Association, was preached on the fourth 
Sunday in February, 1827. His popularity 
was at once pre-eminent, and he was soon left 
in full possession of the field. His labors 
were crowned with great success; and, in a 
short time, a small, but highly respectable, 
church was organized, of which he was a con- 
stituent member. By this church, collected 
under his own ministry, he was invited to be- 
come their pastor. In this call almost the 
entire community cordially joined. 

There is no specific information as to the 
motives that influenced Witt to accept this in 
vitation. They may, however, be easily inferred 
from his circumstances. He had been several 
years in the ministry ; his gifts had been cul- 
tivated and improved ; he was not the man to 



148 Life ofliev. Daniel Witt. 

remain in a subordinate position ; he had the 
experience needed to insure success ; he was 
of an age that rendered a permanent settlement 
desirable; and providence opened to him an 
inviting field of labor, with a reasonable pros- 
pect of pecuniary support, among an admiring 
and affectionate people. He accepted the call ; 
and neither party ever had cause to regret his 
decision. It is questionable whether a pastor 
and people were ever better adapted to each 
other than were Witt and the Sharon church 
(that was the name of the body organized and 
worshipping at Sandy River), and, indeed, the 
whole community of eastern Prince Edward. 
He soon removed to the county, and in a short 
time purchased a comfortable home, where he 
resided for about forty-five years, and where, 
in peace with God and all mankind, he ended 
his useful career. His was the longest pas- 
torate, with probably one exception, among all 
his contemporary Baptist pastors in Virginia. 

It is very difficult to write, in a satisfactory 
manner, the life of a country pastor. It is of 
necessity devoid of variety. There may be in 



Removal to Prina Edward. L49 

it occasionally interesting, or even stirring, 
events, but they are too infrequent, should they 
not be forgotten, to be woven into a connected 
story. The history of a long -rural pastorate 
must, like the life itself, be monotonous. The 
journal of one week is that of another week. 
There is from year to year the same incessant 
round of studies, labors, and perplexities, occa- 
sionally varied by health, weather, seasons, dis- 
appointments, successes, and other circum- 
stances. The journal even of Whitefield is 
tedious. 

What is true of the lives of pastors generally 
is specially true of the life of Dr. Witt. It was 
remarkably uniform and quiet. For almost 
half a century he dwelt in the same house; 
travelled over the same roads ; preached at the 
same places ; labored among the same people, 
or their descendants; proclaimed, not indeed 
the same sermons, but the same gospel ; pur- 
sued the same wearisome round of toil; and 
was subject to the same anxious cares. This 
uniformity was sometimes broken by a revival 
in his churches, a visit of a strange minister, 
11 



150 Life ofHev. Daniel Witt. 

a preaching tour in a contiguous county, a 
trip to the Springs for his health, and once 
by a journey of several months in the West; 
but most of these events were not committed 
to record, and have faded from the memory of 
the living. 

We cannot furnish the details of Witt's pas- 
toral life, and it would be unprofitable to do it 
if we could. All that can be done is to give a 
general statement of his labors, influence, and 
usefulness. There was a minute record kept 
of his services, sacrifices, and sufferings, in the 
cause of Christ ; but it was kept on high, and is 
not accessible to mortals. 



Chapter vi. 



DR. WITT'S PASTORAL LABORS. 



Contents : Long continued Pastoeate. — Success. 
— Revival. — Conveesion of his Childeen. — Delight 
in his Woek. — His Laboes Extended. — Sevebal 
Churches Oeiginated. — A Difficulty about a Feee 
House of Woeship. — A Lettee conceening Mount 
Lebanon and Nottoway Chueches. — Results of his 
Ministey. 



Chapter vi. 



DR. WITT'S PASTORAL LABORS. 



'HE Sharon church, meeting at Sandy 
River, within a mile of his residence, was 
the centre and chief theatre of Dr. Witt's 
pastoral work. Here, through the long period 
of his residence in Prince Edward, large, intel- 
ligent, and respectable congregations attended 
on his preaching. They were varied in size 
by the changes in the weather and seasons, the 
health of the neighborhood, and the unavoidable 
fluctuations of society ; but they were as full as, 
under the diversified circumstances, could have 
been expected. Among all his ministerial ac- 
quaintances there was not one whose name and 
presence could materially add to the size of the 
audience. As it was the centre of his labors, 
so it was the point of his greatest influence and 



154 Life of Rev. Daniel Witt. 

popularity. If Witt preached, the congregation 
was satisfied. In a period of forty-five years, 
though it underwent various and striking revo- 
lutions, it changed not in love and reverence 
for the gifted and faithful pastor. His con- 
temporaries almost idolized him; and their 
children and grandchildren, as they successively 
came on the stage, vied with their parents in 
their high estimation of their religious teacher. 
It is not surprising that his popularity did not 
wane. Intelligent and discriminating persons, 
> who heard him preach frequently and under 
different circumstances, declared that none of 
of his sermons were so fresh, vigorous, and 
touching as those which he delivered in the 
pulpit of Sandy Eiver church. There, all his 
sympathies being aroused, and all his powers 
called into exercise, he poured forth from the 
treasures of his memory, and the fulness of his 
heart, his most entrancing strains of eloquence 
and his most moving appeals. 

His success at this place was commensurate 
with his popularity. " His labors," says Dr. 
Sydnor, " were wonderfully blessed. A church 



Pastoral Labo L56 

was organized, which soon became, and has 
continued to the present time, one of the 
largest and most influential churches of the 
Association." 

Many revivals occurred under his ministry 
in this church, by which large and valuable ad 
ditions were made to its membership. I cannot 
furnish a minute account of them, nor is it need- 
ful to do it. They did not differ widely from 
other religious reformations. On such occasions 
religious meetings and services were greatly 
multiplied ; and the pastor usually performed 
the chief part of the labors. He was not a 
professional revivalist ; but he was a revivalist 
in the tiniest and best sense of the word. His 
preaching was eminently fitted to awaken the 
careless, melt the hardened, guide the mquiring, 
encourage the desponding, and comfort the dis- 
tressed; and Iris quiet manner and cautious 
measures were well suited to suppress undue 
excitement, and to prevent the indulgence of 
fallacious hopes, and the making of a hasty and 
indiscreet profession of conversion. The late 
Dr. Poindexter used to say that brother Witt's 



156 Life of Rev. Daniel Witt. 

preaching had a quality that neither his nor 
mine possessed — converting power. By that 
inexplicable and invaluable quality, Witt's min- 
istry was eminently characterized. Few pastors 
were the direct means of the salvation of so 
many sinners as he was. 

Of a revival, a brief notice is found in a letter 
addressed by Dr. Witt to his friend, Mrs. P., 
under date of November 8, 1854 : 

"The revival has subsided. There is still, 
however, a very pleasant state of feeling in the 
community. Brotherly love abounds. Very few 
persons in the congregation are unconverted ; 
the most of them are in the church. Thirty- 
eight white persons were baptized as the fruit 
of our protracted meeting. If they should only 
make faithful and useful Christians, what a cur- 
rent of religious influence will be set in motion, 
which, in its onward course, will bless the 
world long after those who assisted in putting 
it a-going shall have gone to their rest." 

One expression in this extract claims partic- 
ular notice: "Very few persons in the congre- 
gation are unconverted." This statement was 



Pastoral Labors. • 157 

not only true at the date of the letter, but 
throughout the entire period of his ministry 
at Sandy Kiver church. So pervasive and 
subduing was his influence, that very few per- 
sons could long listen to his preaching without 
being allured into the service of Christ. The 
children who grew up under his pastorate first 
loved him as a Mend, then reverenced him as 
a religious teacher, and finally accepted with 
joy the gospel that he preached, and brought 
forth fruit to the glory of God. 

Dr. Witt's own children grew up amiable, 
moral, almost faultless, dutiful to their parents 
and respectful to religion, but not decidedly 
pious. The father's heart was heavily bur- 
dened and deeply grieved at their seeming 
insensibility to divine things. All his neigh- 
bors' children were making a credible profes- 
sion of their faith in Christ; but his own, 
whom he had so carefully trained, and for 
whose salvation he had so earnestly prayed, 
were apparently abandoned to hardness of 
heart. Some time in the year 1857, when 
there was no general religious excitement, and 



158 Life of Rev. Daniel Witt. 

no special efforts for the conversion of sinners, 
he was delighted to find that his elder son, 
James, by his second marriage, and his step- 
daughter, by his third marriage, were under 
deep religious impressions, which soon resulted 
in their joyful conversion and their public con- 
fession of faith in Christ in the ordinance of 
baptism. The Lord was better to him than he 
had even hoped. His children were converted 
under circumstances most favorable to evincing 
their sincerity, and making a good impression 
on the community. Eef erring to this event, in 
a letter to the writer, dated December 16th, 
1857, he says: 

" I began to hope, a few months ago, that I 
was about to be restored to tolerable health 
again. I preached a great deal, and with great 
pleasure to myself, and, I trust, not without 
some benefit to my people. I do not recollect 
any period of my life in which I enjoyed more 
liberty or happiness in the exercise of my min- 
istry. I went to the work with an interest and 
zest which were not exceeded in the earlier 
years of my life, when all was youth, and 



Pastoral Labors. 159 

impulse, and health, and zeal, and heavenly 
expectation. My heart, blasted in many of its 
hopes, and sobered in some of its ways, had 
been visited with new sources of enjoyment, in 
the merciful dealings of God with my family. 
An old fashioned work of grace upon the minds 
of my children left me no reason to doubt their 
conversion to Christ. Openings in the provi- 
dence of God seemed to invite me to a greater 
activity ; and buoyed by the new and delight- 
ful state of things in my family, I put forth 
greater efforts, both in preaching and travelling 
about, than I perhaps ought to have done. I 
am now reaping the reward of my indiscretion. 
But still, I do not regret anything that I have 
done to honor Christ, or to promote His cause. 
I really had rather die in the faithful and de- 
lightful performance of duty than to while away 
an inglorious life in indolence and ease." 

We linger for a moment on one expression 
in the above quotation: "An old-fashioned 
work of grace." It is just such a work as Witt 
himself experienced, and which he so truth- 
fully described in his autobiography. As much 



160 Life of Rev. Daniel Witt. 

as any minister that we have known, he be- 
lieved in the necessity of such a work. His 
preaching was peculiarly suited to lead to it. 
Persons converted under his ministry were 
quite sure to know something of the corruption 
of their hearts, the sinfulness of sin, and the 
insufficiency of their works for justification. 
They were no strangers to godly sorrow, and 
tears, and humiliation, and conflicts with spi- 
ritual adversaries. They had not only passed 
from death unto life, but they remembered the 
way-marks of the journey. They not only had 
a hope, but they could give a satisfactory reason 
for it. 

The Sharon church, though the chief, was by 
no means the only flock over which Witt exer- 
cised a pastoral oversight. His ministry, both 
stated and occasional, was extended into the 
contiguous neighborhoods of the county, and 
of the adjacent counties. He was, during most 
of his settled life, according to the custom 
prevalent in the thinly peopled rural districts 
of Virginia, pastor of several churches at the 
same time. "For many years," says Dr. Syd- 



Pa&toral Labors. 161 

nor, in his Memorial Discourse, "he was pastor 
at Jamestown, in Cumberland, and at Union, in 
Prince Edward ; and for a few years at Leb- 
anon, in Nottoway." The two latter of these 
churches, as well as the flourishing church in 
the town of Farmville, claimed Sandy Kiver or 
Sharon church as their mother, and Dr. Witt 
as the principal agent in their organization. 

Dr. Sydnor says, in his Discourse: "I am 
in possession of facts connected with the origin 
of Nottoway church, so deeply interesting in 
themselves, and so strikingly illustrative of the 
character of Dr. Witt, and of his popularity as 
a preacher, that I will here mention them in 
detail. 

" He commenced his labors in Nottoway in the 
year 1831. The bounds of the church at Sandy 
River had been extended into that county. His 
members there requested him to preach for 
them, at Eepublican meeting-house, and he 
made a regular monthly appointment at that 
place. Kev. W. S. White, D. D., now of Lexing- 
ton, Va., was then pastor of the Presbyterian 
Church in Nottoway, holding regular services 



162 Life of Rev. Daniel Witt. 

at Republican. Rarely ever were too such gifted 
and popular young ministers of different deno- 
minations brought together in the same com 
munity, and called to perform alternate services 
at the same place. Crowds attended upon their 
ministry and their labors were greatly blessed. 
It did not seem that there was any unholy ambi- 
tion on the part of these young men as to which 
should be the greater ; but there was a rivalry 
and jealousy on the part of their respective 
friends, which produced, for a time, some aliena- 
tion between the ministers themselves. There 
was a strong popular feeling in favor of Mr. 
Witt, and the denomination which he repre- 
sented. It was proposed to organize a Baptist 
church. Republican was regarded at that time 
by the people generally as a free house of wor- 
ship, and it was thought the Baptists had an 
equal right in it with the Presbyterians. It was 
found, however, that the title deed gave the 
Presbyterians the control of the house. It was 
to be used by other denominations only when 
"not occupied" by them. No objection was 
made to Mr. Witt's preaching at the place, but 



Pastoral Labors. \A\ 

strong objection was made to his organizing a 

church there. Several letters passed between 
the two ministers on the subject. The corres- 
pondence on both sides was respectful, digni- 
fied, and Christian like. There was some con- 
tention between them, but it was nothing like 
so sharp as that between Paul and Barnabas, 
which resulted in their parting one from the 
other. And in this case, as in that, the trouble 
turned out rather unto the furtherance of the 
gospel. In his closing letter, with somewhat of 
spiciness, and a great deal of firmness, but 
with nothing of anger or resentment, Mr. Witt 
said: "We waive all claim to the use of the 
house. I intend to preach in the neighbor- 
hood, and to constitute a church, but not at Re- 
publican. For the present, a grove shall be our 
sanctuary, a stump shall be my pulpit, and the 
vault of heaven my sounding board." The 
grove selected was the one now surrounding 
the old Nottoway meeting-house. For several 
months services were held in the open air. An 
immense congregation was brought together. 
In a short time a house was built, and a churc h 



164: Life ofHev. Daniel Witt. 

constituted, with Mr. Witt as pastor. His labors 
there, as at Sandy Kiver, met with wondrous 
success. Vast multitudes flocked to hear him, 
and many became obedient to the faith. He 
served this church as pastor, with some inter- 
mission of his labors, on account of ill health, 
for more than thirty years."* 

The writer has a vague recollection that, 
returning from a visit to his native county, 
Bedford, to his home in the Northern Neck, he 
passed through that region, and preached the 
dedicatory sermon in Nottoway church, He 
has a distinct remembrance of the great con- 
gregation attending the service, and of the 
enthusiastic admiration of the people for Witt 
and his preaching. 

Dr. Witt ever cherished the deepest solici- 
tude for the people among whom he lived and 

* Since the above was written, the venerable Dr. 
White, full [of years, of labors, and of honors, has 
joined Dr. Witt on the other side of the river ; where, 
under the bowers of Paradise, there will be nothing to 
disturb their harmony nor mar their joy, world without 
end. 






Pastoral Labor*. [m 

labored. The affection and admiration of pastor 
and people were Mutual. He thought that no 
pastor ever had so loving and devoted a flock ; 
and they believed that no people were ever 
favored with so lovely and faithful a religious 
teacher. The pious concern of the pastor for 
the welfare of his flock appears in the following 
extract of a letter, addressed by him to Dr. 
Sydnor, under date of September, 1870, in re- 
ference to Mount Labanon and Nottoway 
churches : 



"I feel an interest in the welfare of these 
churches which an outsider % can hardly be ex- 
pected to feel. I have been with them in pros- 
perity and adversity, through a long term of 
years. I witnessed their first struggles into 
life. I rejoiced in their subsequent success and 
enlargement, and now I mourn over their de- 
clension. I have carried them in my heart for 
forty years, and now that I can no longer do 
anything for them, I earnestly pray that the 
Lord may make your ministry a blessing to 
them. And notwithstanding there are many 
12 



166 Life of Rev. Daniel Witt. 

things to discourage, in the desertion of the 
church of their fathers by the gay and the fash- 
ionable religionists of the day, they are things 
which are occurring constantly all over the land, 
and ought not to slacken our efforts or distress 
our minds. God, in His providence, is holding 
us down to our special mission. Our work is 
among the common people. It was thus with 
our Saviour ; it was thus with the apostles ; and 
shall the servant be above his Lord? If the 
fastidious and fashionable people will not be 
Baptists, I cannot help it. God will see to His 
own cause. Let us do our duty, and He will 
take care of the interests of His kingdom." 

Of the results of Dr. Witt's long, laborious, 
and devoted pastorates, it is difficult to make 
an accurate estimate. Only a brief statistical 
view of them can be furnished. Ten years, 
perhaps, before his death, on baptizing the 
daughter of a beloved brother, he remarked 
that she was the two-thousandth candidate 
whom he had baptized. He subsequently bap- 
tized 175 persons in connection with Sharon 






Pastoral Labors. 1G7 

church. The number that he baptized during 
that period into the fellowship of other churches 
is not known ; but the whole of his baptisms 
could not have fallen far, if at all, short of 
2,500. 

In making a just 'estimate of this success, 
several things must be considered : 

First. The region in which Witt labored was 
thinly peopled. His large congregations were 
gathered from a wide territory. Many of his 
hearers would travel six, eight, or ten miles, 
over rough and hilly roads, to enjoy the benefit 
of his preaching. As has been already stated, 
most of the persons coming within the range 
of his ministry were converted and brought 
into the churches. Had he preached in a 
more populous neighborhood, or had access to 
greater numbers of persons, there is reason to 
suppose that the fruits of his labors would have 
been vastly increased. 

Secondly. The good accomplished in Witt's 
field was due almost entirely to his own minis- 
trations. In the early period of his pastoral 



168 Life of Rev. Daniel Witt. 

work he was almost entirely destitute of minis- 
terial help. In his latter years, there were 
neighboring pastors, of congenial spirit, and of 
acceptable gifts, who occasionally aided him in 
his meetings, but whose services he always 
cheerfully and liberally reciprocated. In a re- 
markable degree the fruits gathered in his field 
were the products of his own toil. Many of 
the revivals in his churches were commenced 
and carried on entirely by his own minis- 
trations, or with very slight succor from 
abroad. 

Thirdly. The indirect results of his pastoral 
efforts must not be overlooked. There went 
out from his churches and from his ministry 
an influence of no small value. The light which 
he kindled was not put under a bushel. The 
churches that he organized and trained were as 
a city set on a hill, that could not be hid. He 
was not so successful as was his early pastor 
and venerable friend, Eev. William Harris, in 
rearing up ministers ; but several men of mark 
and influence went forth from his churches to 



Pastoral Labors. igg 

publish the gospel Among these may be men- 
tioned Professor George W. Eaton, D. D., of 
Hamilton University, N. Y., who soon followed 
his early pastor to the land of rest; and the 
Rev. William C. Ligon, of Missouri, who still, 
"fat and flourishing," is bringing forth "fruit 
in old age." 




-e^^^^e- 



Chapter VII. 



DR. WITT'S LABORS AND INFLUENCE BEYOND 
THE LIMITS OF HIS OWN CHURCHES. 



Contents : Labobs in Pbotbacted Meetings. — 
His Influence in the Association. — His Tbip to the 
West. — Scenes by the Way. — Events in Missoubi. — 
The Gbeat Flood. — Chicago — The Falls of Niagaba. 
— Retubn Home. 




Chapter vii. 



DR. WITTS LABORS AND INFLUENCE BEYOND THE 
LIMITS OF HIS OWN CHURCHES. 



'ITT'S life would manifestly be imperfectly 
written, if no account were taken of his 
labors and usefulness beyond the bounds 
of his pastorates; and yet these efforts were 
so desultory and so widely scattered, and this 
influence was so indirect and unnoticeable, that 
it is impossible to give a full record of them. 
Nothing can be attempted beyond a brief and 
imperfect sketch of them. 

Eeference has already been made to his labors 
in protracted and revival meetings, and to his 
excellent qualifications for the service. For 
many years the feebleness of his health pre- 
vented him from participating largely in this 
kind of toil ; but so far as his strength and his 



174 Life of Rev. Daniel Witt. 

opportunities would permit, he was not merely 
willing, but delighted to assist his brother pas- 
tors and the neighboring churches in meetings 
of this sort. In protracted labors, his sermons 
were always appropriate, acceptable, and pleas- 
ing. He was entirely free from the eccen- 
tricities, extravagancies, and egotism by which 
the sermons of so many revivalists have been 
marred. He relied on no tricks, no sensational 
stories, and no startling measures, for success 
on such occasions; but on the simple, affec- 
tionate proclamation of the gospel. I well re- 
member his labors in a protracted meeting, 
conducted in the Grace Street Baptist church, 
Richmond, some years before the war. His 
preaching was peculiarly refreshing to the dis- 
ciples. It produced a revival in the true sense 
of the word. Their Christian graces were made 
to nourish as flowers under the rains and dews 
of heaven. The conversions, or rather profes- 
sions of conversion, were not so numerous as 
on some other occasions ; but they were very 
satisfactory. 

Throughout the whole of his pastoral life, 



Influence beyond his own Churches* 175 

Dr. Witt was connected with the Appomattox 
Baptist Association. In its prosperity he felt 
a deep interest, and in all its measures to ad- 
vance the cause of Christ he took an active and 
influential part. He was a preacher rather 
than a speech-maker. The pulpit, not the' 
platform, was his proper theatre. Nevertheless, 
he was a ready speaker, and quite able on any 
arena, when occasion demanded, to state and 
to defend his views. His modesty, however, 
caused him to speak rarely and briefly in de- 
liberative assemblies. At the same time, it 
must be conceded that his opinions, concisely 
expressed, weighed more in such bodies than 
the long and voluble arguments of some who 
spoke to be heard rather than to convince. 
The following quotation is from the Memorial 
Discourse of Dr. Sydnor, delivered to the As- 
sociation, and at their request : 

" In his connection with the Association, his 
influence and labors were invaluable. He was 
rarely ever absent from your meetings — never 
when his health would allow him to be present 
— and always evinced a lively interest in your 



176 Life of liev. Daniel Witt. 

prosperity. When eligible, under your consti- 
tution, he was almost always chosen as your 
presiding officer. Very often was he elected 
to preach your annual sermon, at every meet- 
ing appointed on important committees, and to 
perform other responsible services. Without 
disparagement of others, it may be said that 
he was the leading man of the Association; 
none so gifted as a preacher, and none so in- 
fluential in directing and controlling the pro- 
ceedings of the body." 

It has been already stated that brother Witt 
was present at the organization of the Baptist 
General Association of Virginia, and its first 
missionary. To the close of his life he was 
warmly devoted to its interests. He was never 
absent from its meetings without stern neces- 
sity. He probably attended more of them than 
any other man, and certainly more than any 
person, except the lamented Taylor and'myself. 
On these occasions he did not take a prominent 
part in the business of the body. He deferred 
to the judgment of those whose opportunities 
made them more intimately acquainted with its 



Influmot beyond his own Churches. Ill 

interests and its plans. If he was not an active, 
he was not a troublesome member. He be- 
longed to no clique, was swayed by no preju- 
dice, was in full sympathy with every benevo- 
lent plan, and was ready to bear his due share 
of every burden. In his early years, while 
gifted preachers were scarce, he was usually 
appointed, at the meeting of the Association, 
to occupy one of the most important pulpits on 
Lord's-day morning; and to the close of his 
life he never failed to preach on the occasion, 
his health permitting it, in a place of no small 
responsibility. 

At the meeting of the General Association, 
held in Petersburg at the beginning of the war, 
he was appointed to preside over its delibera- 
tions. He was frequently elected a vice-presi- 
dent of the body, and in that capacity often 
occupied the chair. Though he presided with 
self-possession and dignity, and had a fair mea- 
sure of acquaintance with parliamentary law, 
he never aspired after distinction as a presiding 
officer, and cheerfully yielded that honor to 
any one who might receive it. It may be fairly 



178 Life of Rev. Daniel Witt. 

affirmed that no member of the Association was 
more loved and honored than Witt. His pre- 
sence seemed to be a necessity in its meetings. 
His death created a vacuum in it that no living 
man could fill. 

Witt travelled but little. He rarely attended 
the meetings of the Baptist Triennial Conven- 
tion, or of the Southern Baptist Convention ; 
though he was in full sympathy with their ob- 
jects, and well informed as to their measures 
and labors. He loved his home, his churches, 
his neighbors, and his pastoral work. 

"Remote from towns he ran his godly race, 
Nor e'er had changed, nor wished to change his place." 

He was not, however, ignorant of the world. 
Though he viewed it through a key-hole, he 
scanned it carefully. By means of journals 
and books, and intercourse with friends, and 
an occasional excursion beyond his narrow 
sphere of labor, he was kept well informed of 
the progress of the world, and felt quite a 
lively interest in its various affairs. 

Once Witt ventured quite beyond his ordin- 
ary range. In company with the writer he 



Influence beyond his awn Churches. 179 

made an extensive tour in what was then 
known as the West. Unfortunately, his jour 
nal, carefully written during the trip, has been 
lost. Many of his" intimate friends had left his 
neighborhood and settled in Missouri, and he 
was desirous to pay them a visit. He wished, 
too, to see the great West, of which so much 
had been said and written. As the writer was 
going to visit relatives in Missouri, Witt re- 
solved to accompany him. The trip was, in 
many respects, a memorable one, and it is 
therefore proper to notice it. As I shall be 
dependent on my own recollections and notes 
for the account of it, and as we were intimately 
associated in the journey, I may be pardoned 
for unavoidable egotism. I shall employ the 
pronoun "we" throughout the report, to denote 
both Witt and myself. 

The tour was commenced in April, 1844. 
We were both in mature life, vigorous health, 
and cheerful spirits. We first attended the 
Baptist Triennial Convention, held in Phila- 
delphia, Pennsylvania. It had a stormy ses- 
sion. The abolition excitement, which separated 



180 Life of Rev. Daniel Witt. 

the Baptists of the North and South in their 
missionary operations, was then reaching its 
culmination. It was temporarily allayed ; but 
only soon to be revived with resistless fury. 

The 1st day of May we left Philadelphia for 
Pittsburg. There were two routes: one by 
canal-boat from Harrisburg, the other by rail- 
road and coach. We had intended to take the 
former, but brother Witt, an inexperienced 
traveller, who was commissioned to obtain 
tickets, through his own mistake or the dis- 
honesty of the agent, secured, much to our 
annoyance, passage on the latter. The weather 
was rainy, the roads were muddy, the coach 
was crowded with passengers within and with- 
out, the trip was slow and disagreeable ; and 
we did not reach Pittsburg until nine o'clock, 
P. M., on the 3d of the month. The city had 
then a population of 35,000 ; and though a new 
place, had the appearance, from the settling 
smoke of the furnaces, of being one thousand 
years old. We spent a Sunday in the city, and 
preached for brother Shadrach, pastor of the 
Second Baptist church. 



Influence beyond Mb oum Churches, 181 

Monday morning, we embarked, on a spacious 
steamer, with many passengers, for Cincinnati. 
The company was pleasant, the fare good, the 
scenery on the river interested us much, and 
we reached the city safely on Wednesday morn- 
ing. It then rivalled Baltimore in extent and 
appearance, though some persons residing 
there remembered when the ground on which 
it stands was an unbroken forest. After hastily 
surveying the city, and visiting the neighbor- 
ing town of Covington, we took passage in an 
uncomfortable, but large and crowded, steamer 
for St. Louis. We passed Louisville, then a 
town of 27,000 inhabitants, of which we ob- 
tained a pretty fair view, and pursued our voy- 
age down the beautiful Ohio, but somewhat 
fatigued with the almost unvarying sameness of 
its shores. 

The captain had promised to land us in St. 
Louis on Sunday morning. At that time we 
were in the Mississippi river, one hundred 
miles below the city. He politely invited us to 
preach in the cabin, and we cheerfully complied 
with the request. 
13 



182 Life of Rev. Daniel Witt, 

I copy from my journal : 

"Brother Witt preached in the forenoon. 
Most of the passengers were in attendance. 
The sermon was plain, earnest and practical, a 
most stirring and appropriate effort. In the af- 
ternoon I preached. The congregation was much 
diminished, and very listless. As I advanced 
in my discourse, one after another fell asleep or 
retired from the cabin, until at least half my 
hearers had disappeared, or got fairly beyond 
hearing. A bishop of the United Brethren in 
Christ delivered a sermon at night. This sect, 
considerably numerous in the States of Ohio, 
Pennsylvania, and Indiana, resembles in doc- 
trine and discipline the Methodist Episcopal 
Church. The bishop was making an official 
visit to Iowa Territory. He seemed to be an 
amiable, pious, and unsophisticated man, hav- 
ing but little knowledge of the world or of 
books. Some of his comicalities were irresist- 
ibly amusing. He had been unused to preach- 
ing on steamers. In the ardor of his discourse 
he elevated his voice to a deafening pitch. Sus- 
pecting that he was making more than needful 



Influence beyond his own Churches. 183 
effort with his lungs, he suddenly paused, and 
then said, in a singularly artless manner, 'If 
any one of you think I am speaking too loud, 
jest let him come behind me and give my coat- 
tail a pull, and I will lower my voice.' No one 
appealing to perform the friendly office, the 
good man recommenced his vociferation. The 
sermon was heard with interest, and evident 
marks of approbation. At its close some of 
the passengers, most respectable in appearance, 
expressed their decided admiration of it." 
^ Monday morning we awoke at the wharf of 
St. Louis. The city then gave evidence of the 
vitality and progressiveness for which it has 
since been so strikingly distinguished. We 
found forty steamers, many of them large, and 
an active commerce at the levee. After a day 
spent in viewing the city and calling on ac- 
quaintances, we took the Fulton stage on 
Tuesday morning, for the country. In a few 
days Witt and myself parted, he visiting his 
friends in the western part of Missouri, and I 
spending the time with my relatives in Mont- 
gomery county. 



184 Life of Rev. Daniel Witt. 

We had a pleasant visit to Missouri; but 
Witt and myself were not much together. We 
attended a few meetings in concert, of which 
the following brief notices are taken from my 
journal: 

"May 7-10. — Attended a protracted meet- 
ing at Loutre Island. On Saturday morning, 
brother Witt joined me from the Osage country. 
The congregation, after the first day, was large; 
on Sunday very large. We were -much inter- 
rupted by frequent showers. We preached the 
gospel: the same gospel which, more than 
twenty years ago, in the upper counties of Vir- 
ginia, we used to proclaim together. It brought 
to my mind a lively, affecting, and not un- 
pleasant remembrance of departed scenes. The 
assembly was attentive, solemn, and, at times, 
deeply affected. The closing scene was pecu- 
liarly interesting and impressive. The Lord 
give success to His own word there published!" 

We had arranged, on our return to St. Louis, 
to have a meeting of several days at Union 
meeting-house, in ] Warren [ county, near the 
home of brother Walton, an old friend of Dr. 



Influence beyond his own Churches. 185 

Witt The extract from the journal is con- 
tinued : 

"At the close of the day, (June 13th,) we 
reached the hospitable dwelling of brother 
Walton, on the border of Elkhorn Prairie. 

"Friday, 14. — The weather continues in- 
clement. I preached to a small congregation, 
at the church hard by the house of our gen- 
erous host. The rain prevented the assembling 
of the people in the afternoon. This neighbor- 
hood is a stronghold of the anti- mission, hyper- 
Calvinistic Baptists. One of their preachers, 
in anticipation of our visit, warned his breth- 
ren against hearing the mad- dog missionary 
preachers, at their approaching ' distracted 
meeting.' Poor man ! it is not surprising that 
he should be unwilling for the dupes of his 
ministry to enjoy the opportunity of receiving 
instruction. Ignorance is the basis of his in- 
fluence. 

"Saturday and Sunday. — On Saturday our 
congregation was respectable in size and re- 
spectful in behaviour ; but on Sunday it was 
large and disorderly. Brother Witt preached, 



186 Life of Rev. Daniel Witt. 

standing in the only door of the church, the 
audience being partly within and partly with- 
out, and was continually interrupted by persons 
passing in and out, and pressing hint closely to 
the door post. It did not seem to be their 
purpose to disturb the service, but they were 
inconsiderate. A minister less self-possessed 
and fluent than Witt could scarcely have 
preached at all ; and even he was greatly hin- 
dered and embarrassed in his sermon. Our 
preaching at this place did not promise much 
good. It was impossible for us to interest and 
impress the hearers. It was, indeed, more of 
a ' distracted meeting' than we had been 
accustomed to attend." 

We discontinued the services, and made ar- 
rangements with our "well beloved Gams" to 
carry us to St. Charles, on the next day. 

The season had been an extraordinary one. 
From the time we left Philadelphia it had 
rained almost incessantly, and the showers 
were as heavy as they were frequent. The 
Mississippi river was full when we reached 
Cairo. It was gradually rising while we were 



Influent beyond hi8 own Churches, 187 

in St. Louis. All the time of our stay in Mi> 
souri. that river, with all its tributaries, had 

been increasing in volume and velocity. When 
we reached St. Charles, the Missouri river had 
attained to frightful dimensions, spreading de- 
struction along its banks for hundreds of miles. 
At St. Charles we took a steamer for St. Louis. 
When we reached this place the flood had at- 
tained a height unprecedented in the expe- 
rience of civilized men, and to which, it is 
hoped, it may never again rise. The Avater was 
threatening the second stories of the buildings 
on the levee. The river overspread the Amer- 
ican bottom, extending to the bluff opposite 
the city. The drift-wood covered the main 
channel of the stream, and moved with railroad 
speed. Huge trees, roots, trunks, and branches, 
covered with their summer foliage, were occa- 
sionally seen floating down the current. 

Tuesday, June the 18th, we left St. Louis, 
in an old and rather crazy steamer, to ascend 
the Illinois river, on our route to Chicago. It 
was probably the most remarkable voyage ever 
made on that stream, except by those who 



188 Life of Hev. Daniel Witt 

made it near the same time. I give another 
extract from the journal : 

"Wednesday j 19. — The boat having been 
stopped most of the night by the storm, we 
found ourselves in the morning still moving on 
the father of waters. Early, however, we reached 
the Illinois river. This beautiful stream is not 
much smaller than the Ohio. The bluffs are, at 
some points, lofty and grand, being consider- 
ably higher than those of the Mississippi or the 
Missouri river. The flood in this stream far 
exceeds that of the Missouri. The dirt banks of 
the Illinois are high ; so high that 'passengers 
on the upper deck of a steamer cannot, at com- 
mon water, see the bottoms. Both banks are 
now overflowed, generally to the depth of ten 
feet. We were told at Naples that the river was 
forty feet perpendicular height above low water. 
In some places the prairies were converted into 
beautiful and unruffled seas, of several miles in 
width. The dwelling houses on the high banks 
were mostly surrounded by water to the eaves. 
One man had deposited his furniture on the top 
of his house, and was calmly awaiting the neces- 



Influence beyond his own Churches. 189 

sity of removing— a necessity not unlikely to 
occur as the water is rising. Another house 
had a large hole cut through the roof, through 
which, we suppose, the family made their es- 
cape from drowning, with their movables. At 
one place no living thing could be seen, except 
the poultry, walking backward and forward on 
the ridge of the house, which the current had 
almost reached. "We met hogs swimming down 
the stream, on their hopeless voyage to New 
Orleans. We passed many villages and towns 
submerged, entirely deserted by their inhabi- 
tants, or occupied by only a few courageous 
sentinels left to protect the remaining stuff. A 
few boats were moving on the water, freighted 
with families and their goods ; but most of the 
inhabitants had taken timely warning and fled 
to high ground. 

At sunset the clouds dispersed, except some 
fleecy fragments, left to adorn the close of day. 
The scene is now surpassingly beautiful. The 
water, covering the extended plains, appears as 
a sea of molten glass, partly concealed by the 
trees along the banks of the river. On the 



190 Life of Ren, Daniel Witt. 

western shore, the inverted landscape, beneath 
the smooth surface of the water, presents a 
picture which a painter would love to copy, but 
which the pencil of Raphael could not rival. 
In the midst of this scene of surpassing beauty 
and interest, we passed a building against which 
a large drift of cord wood had lodged ; and the 
inmates having removed to an open boat, fast 
moored to a tree in the yard, were, true to the 
universal instinct, anxiously waiting to sell their 
waif to the passing steamers." 

Beaching Ottawa, the head of steamboat 
navigation, in safety, we took the stage coach 
for Chicago. It was then a town of 6,000 or 
7,000 inhabitants, but at that early day, giving 
indications of its future growth and prosperity. 
After spending a Sunday there, we took the 
lake route for Buffalo, which we reached in due 
time, after a pleasant voyage. We were bound 
for the Falls of Niagara. Of all the persons 
who have ever visited that wonder of the world, 
we and our few fellow travellers, saw it under 
the greatest disadvantage. It was beautiful, 
picturesque ; but not grand. Things are great 



Influence beyond his own Churches. VM 

and small by comparison. We could but com- 
pare the Niagara with the Mississippi, as we 
had recently seen it, in oceanic extent and 
grandeur. We could fancy a stream, like the 
swollen Father of Waters, with its enormous 
load of drift wood, plunging into a chasm pro- 
portionally deep and wide ; and what were the 
Falls of Niagara compared with such a cataract ? 
A rivulet, the spirting of water from a gimlet 
hole ! After surveying the Falls long and care- 
fully, we reached the conviction that they were 
really grand ; but that impression was still less 
deep and vivid than it would have been had we 
not travelled on the topmost wave of the great 
Mississippi flood. 

From Niagara, we visited the city of New 
York, and, after a short stay, returned directly 
to our homes, to find our families well, and to 
offer our thanks to the wise and gracious Being 
who had guided our steps and preserved our 
lives during our long journey. 

I have dwelt more minutely on the events of 
this trip than good taste may seem to require, 
or even to permit. Two considerations have led 



Y- 



192 Life of Rev. Daniel Witt 

to this prolixity. It was a tour of great and 
abiding interest to Dr. Witt. We had not been 
much together for many years. In this journey 
we were not only in close connection, but we 
seemed to live over again the bright and joyous 
days of our youth. The scenes through which 
we passed were not only in themselves uncom- 
mon, but seen by him under circumstances 
adapted deeply to impress his mind. The trip, 
too, had a most beneficial influence on his after 
life. The facility with which he preached, and 
the not very high demands for intellectual effort 
on the part of his plain country congregations, 
had beguiled him into the neglect of careful 
and laborious preparation for his pulpit services. 
His power as a preacher, if it had not declined, 
had not duly progressed. His pulpit popular- 
ity had suffered a partial diminution. The 
associations, the scenes, the observations, the 
stimulating influence of the journey, inspired 
him with fresh zeal in his ministry, and led to 
his adoption of earnest habits of study and the 
making of most careful preparation for his 
pulpit labors, which continued to the close of 



Influence beyond his own Churches. 19.'* 

his life. Before thifl time, he had depended 
almost entirely on his memory for the matter, 
plan and language of his sermon ; but from this 
period, he preached from copious notes, neatly 
written out, a large stock of which he has left 
behind him. 

In confirmation of this last statement, I quote 
a passage from Dr. Sydnor's Memorial Dis- 
course, referring to the sickness of Dr. Witt in 
1852, which for a long time prevented him from 
preaching : 

"His notes were written with great care. 
These he laid up for future use. On my visits to 
him, about this time, he would grant me free ac- 
cess to his note books, and I remember his say- 
ing to me once, 'I have twenty sermons here 
that I have never preached. It may be, one of 
these days, I shall talk them over to my people ; 
but if I never do, I am amply rewarded already 
in the pleasure I have found in preparing them.' 
I intimated to him that those ' notes,' though 
he should never use them, might yet reach many 
persons after he had passed away. ' Oh, they 



194 Life of Bev. Daniel Witt. 

are not fit for that,' he said, and then changed 
the conversation. 

" On his resuming fully the work of preaching, 
it was noticed by many that his sermons, though 
less impassioned, evinced deeper research and 
more carefulness of plan and expression, than 
ever before. Sometimes, too, there was a lively 
piquancy about them, a vein of pleasant satire, 
which made them exceedingly refreshing, as 
well as instructive. Towards the close of his 
life there was in his preaching, his prayers, his 
letters, his conversation, his whole manner, a 
mellowness, a tenderness, a heavenly unction, 
which indicated plainly an increasing meetness 
for the inheritance of the saints in light, a 
growing readiness to depart, and to be with 
Christ." 



€M§»- 



Chapter viii. 



DR. WITT'S EXPERIENCE IN THE WAR. 



Contents : His Pacific Couese pbevious to the 
Wab. — His Dislike op Political Pkeaching. — His 
Reason foe Espousing the Cause of the South. — His 
Feelings dueing the Conflict. — His Losses, Teials 

and remaeks aftee the fall of the confedeeacy. 

Remaeks. 



Chapter viii. 



DR. WITT'S EXPERIENCE IN THE WAR. 



! T would be a great omission in the life of ' 
Dr. Witt if it furnished no account of his 
course and sufferings in the late civil war. 
While nothing adapted to revive the animosities 
of the deadly strife should be needlessly stated, it 
is due to his memory that his views, motives, 
aims and conduct in relation to it should be fairly 
recorded. They were all well known to his 
friends, and highly approved by them ; but the 
next generation will desire information con- 
cerning them. Indeed, candid men of the pre- 
sent day, who do not know, may wish to know 
how a good and prudent man, a minister of 
the gospel of peace, demeaned himself in the 
time of national conflict and calamity. 
14 



198 Life of Rev. Daniel Witt. 

One point is certain, Witt had no part in 
exciting the passions and sectional prejudices 
in which the war originated. It cannot be 
doubted that agitations, moral, religious, and 
political, caused the alienation, strife, bitter- 
ness and hostility which preceded the bloody- 
conflict. For these agitations Witt was not 
responsible. He was emphatically a man of 
peace. He bore testimony against sin in all 
its phases, but in a kind and conciliatory spirit. 
He was no politician. He sometimes went to 
the polls, but never participated in any politi- 
cal party meeting. His views on this subject 
are revealed in the annexed quotation from a 
letter addressed to his brother-in-law, R. Gwath- 
mey, Esq., dated July the 4th, 1855: 

" Have you any religion now amongst your 
people % The hurricane of political excitement 
has blasted everything of the sort in these 
parts. I have been an observer of things for 
many years, and do not recollect ever to have 
seen so much asperity and bitterness, and all 
manner of ill feeling, in the masses of people 
as I have seen in the late canvass. 'Shall 



Experience in the War. 199 

I not be avenged of such a nation as this ? saith 
the Lord.' Alas! like Jeshurun, we 'have 
grown fat and kicked.' There is undoubtedly 
a widespread forgetfulness of God, and thank- 
lessness for His favors, and restlessness and 
insubordination among men. Are these things 
the precursors of evil ! I fear for our beloved 
country when I think of the justice and severity 
of God, and of the folly, thoughtlesness and 
wickedness of the people. I took no part in 
the recent election; I did not even vote. I 
have been so disgusted with the preaching 
politicians and the politicating-preachers that 
I eschewed the whole thing. This mingling of 
religion and politics I do most cordially repu- 
diate. Of one thing I am certain: Eeligion 
does not need the unholy alliance, either for its 
support or propagation. Standing immovably 
firm on its own basis, it will live and flourish 
when all other things shall go down into obli- 
vion. Would that I had more of its ennobling 
influence in my heart, then Caesar might man- 
age the world according to his own liking." 
A caution is needed to prevent the reader 



200 



Life of Rev. Daniel Witt. 



from being misled by the remarks above. It 
is not quite clear what Witt meant by "politi- 
cating-preachers" He referred, it is likely, to 
ministers in his vicinity who were unduly ex- 
cited and active in political matters, or of 
others at a distance, of whom he had heard, 
that preached political sermons. It is almost 
certain that he had never heard politics dis- 
cussed in a pulpit. Such an act was entirely 
contrary to the custom and the taste of the 
community around him. The writer, with equal 
opportunities with Dr. "Witt for hearing ser- 
mons, has no recollection of having ever known 
politics to be introduced into a Virgina pulpit. 
There were, however, preachers who, becoming 
intensely interested in party politics, devoted 
more time and attention to them than was de- 
manded by their importance, or compatible 
with ministerial usefulness. It was probably 
this unseemly devotion to politics that dis- 
gusted Witt, and prevented him from going to 
the polls in a hotly contested election. 

Had all men been of Witt's temperament and 
principles there would have been no war. He 



Experience in the War. 201 

saw and dreaded the approaching storm, and 
earnestly prayed that it might be averted. He 
was opposed to all the measures which led to 
the fatal conflict. But when it came, he sym- 
pathized fully with the South. This decision 
might reasonably have been expected. He was 
Southern by birth and education. All his in- 
terests and all his associations were in the 
South. Virginia did all that she could, as he 
believed, to prevent the struggle, and was jus- 
tifiable, in the extremity to which she was 
brought, in espousing the cause of the South. 
Had he believed the State to be in the wrong, 
he would probably have sustained her, on the 
same principle that an affectionate and chivalric 
son would take the part of his mother in an 
unequal contest, without stopping to inquire 
whether her cause was just or unjust. Per- 
suaded that the cause of Virginia was right, he 
never doubted his obligation to support her. 

Witt was under a complex government — 
really two governments — the State and Fed- 
eral governments. To the State government 
he had been indebted for protection in his 



202 Life of Rev. Daniel Witt. 

person, character, pursuits, and property. He 
knew it only in its light burdens and its benefi- 
cent results. The Federal government was 
more remote from him, and, though he was 
loyal to it and was proud of its flag, yet he was 
not so impressed with its benefits as he was by 
those of his mother State. "When the crisis 
came, and Virginia was compelled to participate 
in the strife, against her interests, and against 
overwhelming odds, and with a unanimity 
rarely paralleled in the history of republican 
government, she cast in her lot with the South. 
Witt probably doubted, as did many of his 
fellow-citizens, whether secession was a legiti- 
mate remedy for national evils ; but he never 
doubted that the power of the Federal govern- 
ment to coerce States was contrary to the genius 
of our republican institutions, subversive of the 
fundamental principle of self-government, and 
withheld by the Convention which framed the 
Federal constitution. It is not proposed to 
discuss the right or expediency of the secession 
of the State of Virginia, or even the power of 
the Federal government to coerce her obed- 



Mcperiena in the War. 208 

ience: but simply to show the views by which 
Witt, and other good men at the South, were 
governed in the course that they adopted in the 
war. In his view the Federal government had 
no authority to invade the South; it could 
never have been formed had such a right been 
claimed ; it was destructive of the fundamental 
principles of State government; and the war 
was prosecuted, not for the benefit of the people 
of the invaded country, but to subserve the in- 
terests and accomplish the purposes of the 
aggressive party. 

As presenting the views and feelings of Dr. 
Witt, in the midst of the fearful conflict, the 
following extract of a letter to his brother-in 
law, Mr. Gwathmey, dated April, 1864, is fur- 
nished : 

"As the time approaches for the renewal of 
hostilities, I feel an increasing concern in regard 
to the condition of our national affairs. I have 
strong hope that we shall succeed in the coming 
struggle ; but I confess many fears mingle with 
my hope. I am sure our cause is just. If it 
is not proper to resist invasion — if we may not 



204: Life of Rev. Daniel Witt. 

fight when our homes, our wives, our children, 
our property, and our liberties, are all threat- 
ened with destruction — then war never was, 
and never can be right. I have an immovable 
conviction that we are struggling for our rights 
— rights secured to us by the God of nature, 
and by the constitution of what was once our 
country. But then I remember that truth, 
and right, and justice do not always triumph 
in this wicked world ; nay, they are often tram- 
pled in the dust and ground to powder. This 
is the teaching of history. I cannot, therefore, 
dismiss from my mind apprehension in regard 
to the result of this desperate struggle. We 
are a thankless and rebellious people. God has 
already poured out upon us the cup of His in- 
dignation. What further chastening His mys- 
terious wisdom may see proper to inflict it is 
not for us to foresee. Others may speak of the 
skill of our generals, and the bravery of our 
troops ; may trust to the vast resources of our 
country, and of our means of defence ; but, in 
connection with these, and far above all these 
appliances of war, my hope is in the Lord God 



Experience in the War. 205 

of hosts. From Him cometh victory, and from 
Him defeat : " for in the hand of the Lord there 
is a cup, and the wine is red ; He poureth out 
of the same." We have already tasted some of 
its contents ; bitter drops remain, it may be, 
and we may have to drink to the dregs. I am 
trying to school myself into such a state of 
mind as will enable me to meet with fortitude 
whatever may come. It is pleasant to be able 
to say, amid the chaos of events which surround 
us, and the unknown future which rises in the 
distance, "The will of the Lord be done" 

"Witt soon had need for all his submission and 
fortitude. The war terminated contrary to his 
anticipation ; and the storm burst with relent- 
less fury on his head. His residence was in the 
vicinity of the far-famed Appomattox Court 
House, and in the line of Lee's retreat and of 
Grant's pursuit. He must be permitted to 
tell the story of his own trials and sufferings. 
In a letter to Mr. Gwathmey, dated August 
the 12th, 1865, he says: 

"We have had a sad experience since I saw 
you last. In common with others, we have 



206 Life of Rev. Daniel Witt 

shared in the disappointment and mortification 
which must always attend the loss of indepen- 
dence, and the crushing of long- cherished hopes. 
In addition to this, the storm of war swept 
right over us, leaving a wide scene of desola- 
tion in its track. There was no fighting on my 
farm ; but we were within the hearing of the 
muskets, and could see the flashing of the guns. 
The line of battle, as the armies fought through 
this neighborhood, extended from the Appo- 
mattox river nearly to Sandy River church, a 
distance of about twelve miles. After the sur- 
render the Union troops returned to this region, 
and remained amongst us for about six weeks. 
You can readily imagine the ruin they wrought, 
and the state of destitution to which our people 
were reduced. Our horses and provisions, of 
every kind, were taken off, in many instances 
leaving nothing for the inhabitants to subsist 
on. We suffered as much as most of our 
neighbors, more than some of them ; but still a 
merciful Providence sustains us, and we really 
have not suffered for the necessaries of life. I 
thought when the robbers left us that we were 



Experience in the War. 207 

literally stripped of all our means of living ; 
and have been astonished since to see how well 
we can live upon what at first seemed to be ab- 
solutely nothing. But we now have compara- 
tively few to feed, and have as many comforts 
as we need, and are living in more quiet than 
w T e did before these troubles came upon us. An 
inscrutable Providence has appointed for us 
this portion; I receive it as the chastening 
of the Lord, and bow, with adoring submis- 
sion, to the dispensation of that mysterious 
wisdom which I cannot, at present, understand. 
I suppose we shall understand it hereafter ; and 
it will be time enough for us to know it when 
God becomes his own interpreter, and explains 
by the developments of his providence the se- 
cret purposes of his eternal mind. 

"According to my view of things, it is more in 
mercy than in wrath to us, that the relation be- 
tween master and slave has been broken down 
in the South. With the light which I have 
upon the subject, I do not yet see that the re- 
lation itself was sinful per se. It was certainly 
not profitable to me, and was attended with 



208 Life of Bev. Daniel Witt. 

vast responsibilities and perplexing cares. I do 
not, therefore, regret the emancipation of my 
slaves on my own account. But what is to be- 
come of the poor, thoughtless, improvident 
creatures themselves ? Their first idea of free- 
dom is to live without labor, and many of them 
are strolling over the country without making 
any provision for their future, or even present, 
support. It seems to me that the curse still 
rests upon Ham, and thickens over him. In 
this I may be mistaken, as I have often been in 
other things. 

" I know that we all are a proud, thankless 
and rebellious people. We have deserved every 
stroke which the chastening hand of God has 
inflicted upon us. But surely he has ordained 
that we should be humbled by a people distin- 
guished for their disregard of constitutional 
law, and, many of them, of the common decen- 
cies of life. I am sure I have never seen, in 
the whole course of my life, such exhibitions of 
depravity as were made by the Union soldiers 
here. The question of allegiance is settled in 
my mind. I intend to deport myself as a loyal 



Experience in the War. 209 

citizen ; but really, I cannot feel that our per- 
sons or property are safe in such hands. We 
are now lying powerless at their feet, awaiting 
the disposal they may choose to make of us. 
What that may be, it is impossible for us to 
divine. I confess I see no gleam of light in the 
dark future as it presents itself to my view. But 
the Lord may have in store for us something 
which we do not now apprehend. Let us wait 
and see what he will do. My trust is now, as 
ever heretofore, in him alone." 

This chapter will be closed with two or three 
remarks. 

It should be borne in mind that the fore- 
going extracts were penned by Dr. Witt in the 
heat of the conflict, or under the mortification 
of defeat, or the irritation consequent on the 
spoiling of his goods and the desolation of his 
home. If any of his expressions seem to be 
uncharitable, they will surely find an apology, 
in the view of the candid, in the circumstances 
under which he wrote. It may be asked, Why 
publish what was penned under excitement? 
The answer is simple : It is a part of the his- 



210 Life of Rev. Daniel Witt. 

tory of Witt, and necessary to a full under- 
standing of his character, and a proper vindi- 
cation of his conduct. 

Witt was not betrayed by the exasperation 
of the war, or by the manifold losses and trou- 
bles which it brought upon him, into any bitter 
denunciations against the enemy. Throughout 
the whole conflict he continued to preach the 
gospel of peace in a kind and loving spirit. 
In all his private and confidential correspon- 
dence, conducted amid gloom, alarms and 
griefs, there is not a sentence which might not 
have been fitly uttered by a good man on a 
dying bed. His was not the spirit to call 
down fire from heaven on his most relentless 
foes, but rather to pray, "Father, forgive them, 
for they know not what they do." 

While Witt had a profound conviction that 
the Confederate States were contending for 
their natural and constitutional rights, he had 
too much knowledge of human nature, and too 
much candor, not to concede that the Unionists 
might be acting from convictions of the recti- 
tude of their cause as deep, and from motives 



Experience in the War. 211 

just as patriotic, as were his own. It was a 
mystery to him, as it was to many, that they 
should deem it right and laudable to invade 
the country, and lay it waste by fire, sword and 
pillage ; to compel its inhabitants, who had for 
ages been accustomed to self-government, to 
submit to an authority which, with marvelous 
unanimity, they repudiated, and which was ex- 
ercised, not for their good, but the benefit of 
the rulers; but he could not doubt but that 
intelligent and good men, viewing the matter 
from a different standpoint from his own, had 
come to an opposite conclusion. The question 
of Southern independence having been rashly 
committed to the arbitrament of the sword, he 
meekly bowed to its decision, not admitting 
for a moment that it touched the question of 
right. It was decisive as to which party had 
the longer sword, but not which had the better 
argument. 



Chapter ix. 



DR. WITT AT HOME. 



Contents : His Adaptation to Domestic Life. — 
His Fiest Maeeiage. — Death of His Wife. — His 
Second Maeeiage. — His Happy Home. —The Spoileb. 
— His Thied Maeeiage. — His Beight Family. — Mae- 
eiage in the Household. — Death of the Daughtee. 
— His Son, James, entees the Ministey, Sickens and 
Dies. — Jetee, the only Remaining Child by the 
Second Maeeiage, soon follows his Beotheb to the 
Tomb. — His Youngest Child. 



—9^0— 



15 



Chapter ix. 



DR. WITT AT HOME. 



[ H E social, genial, and affectionate nature 
of Dr. Witt eminently fitted him for do- 
mestic life. He was unlike some persons, 
all smiles and courtesy in public, but cold, rude, 
and unpleasant in their own famiHes. Those 
who knew him at home, knew him to the 
greatest advantage. His mild temper, social 
disposition, and gentle, harmless humor, made 
him the sunshine of his family. 

He was first married to Miss Mary C. Cocke, 
of Cumberland county, in 1829, by her pastor, 
Rev. Edward Baptist. She was of a highly 
respectable family, and, for the time and the 
region, well endowed. He soon settled at the 
comfortable residence in Prince Edward, where 



216 Life of Rev. Daniel Witt 

he continued to the close of his life. The mar « 
riage was congenial and happy. It was quickly 
discovered, however, that there was a worm at 
the root of the cherished and flourishing do- 
mestic gourd. Mrs. Witt was pronounced by 
her physicians to be incurably diseased. Her 
married life, after a brief season of enjoyment, 
proved to be one of weakness and suffering. 
For some years the time of her devoted hus- 
band was much taken up with watching and 
nursing ; a service in which his attention was 
never relaxed and his patience never exhausted. 
His was the dreadful post of observation, grow- 
ing darker and darker every hour. In 1834 
Mrs. Witt was released from her sufferings, 
and her husband from his anxious watchings. 
She left one son, Edward Daniel Witt, who 
now resides in Prince Edward county, is a 
member of a Baptist church, and, inheriting 
many of his father's virtues, is highly esteemed 
in his neighborhood. 

Dr. Witt was married the second time, in the 
year 1836, to Miss Mary A. Woodfin, also of 
Cumberland county. This union proved to be 



At Rome. 217 

a great solace to him in bis loneliness. It was 
the introduction of sunlight into a house where 
gloom had long prevailed. Mrs. Witt was an 
intelligent, pious, prudent, energetic lady, who 
became at once the care-taking mother of her 
step-son, and the companion, helper, and de- 
light of her husband. Never was Witt's home 
more bright and joyous than in the days of his 
second wife. Her constitution was sound, her 
health vigorous, and she was a useful and much 
loved pastor's wife. She ^became the mother 
of two lovely and promising boys, James and 
Jeter. No cloud appeared to darken the hori- 
zon of the fond husband and tender father ; but 
nothing can be more uncertain than earthly 
bliss. In the year 1842 Mrs. Witt died. Naught 
is now remembered of her death, except that it 
was caused by an acute disease, and was sudden 
and unexpected. The event was a severe trial 
to the husband. His house was again left 
desolate, with three boys of an age greatly 
needing a mother's care and moulding in- 
fluence. For several years he remained a 
widower, demeaning himself with a discretion 



218 Life ofBev. Daniel Witt. 

and dignity which preserved his ministry from 
all reproach. 

Dr. Witt was married the third time, in the 
year 1849, in the county of Hanover, to Mrs. 
Mary Ellen Temple, widow of Lewis Temple, of 
King William county, and sister of Eev. Joseph 
E. Garlick, D. D., now pastor of Leigh street 
Baptist church, Eichmond, Va. As Mrs. Witt 
survives her husband, it is not proper to speak 
of the marriage with the freedom which might 
otherwise be indulged. Suffice it to say that 
the husband deserved the best wife, and th e 
wife was worthy of the husband. She renewed, 
after years of loneliness, the brightness and joy 
of the household. She had by her first mar- 
riage a son and a daughter, who were adopted 
by Dr. Witt with paternal affection. The 
daughter was received into his family, and 
added greatly to its happiness, and was des- 
tined, as will soon appear, to bring upon it a 
sore affliction. More than twenty years Witt 
lived with his third wife in affection, harmony, 
and as much happiness as falls to the lot of 
mortals. Few persons, however, pass through 



At Home. 219 

a period of twenty years in undisturbed felicity. 
Dark days and heart-rending sorrows awaited 

the fond and favored couple. 

James, Ins second son, grew up to manhood. 
In person, mind, heart and character, he was 
everything that a devoted father could wish. 
Having finished his education, possessing a fine 
gift for public speaking, and being a member of 
the church, many hoped, and none more anx- 
iously than his father, that he would become a 
minister. The young man was not inclined to 
enter the ministry. He had strong convictions 
that it was his duty to do so ; but a stronger 
inclination impelled him to enter the legal pro- 
fession. There was a mighty influence con- 
trolling his course. Mary Lewis Temple, the 
daughter of his step-mother, had grown up in 
the family, a beautiful, lovely and noble lady. 
An affection had sprung up between James and 
herself more tender than that between brother 
and sister. They were engaged to be married. 
There were none to forbid the bans. A more 
suitable match was never known. In age, per- 
sonal appearance, dispositions, mental culture, 



220 Life of Rev. Daniel Witt, 

taste and habits, they were in perfect concord. 
It could not but be pleasing to the parents that 
a union, so happily begun by themselves, should 
be j perpetuated by their children. James and 
Mary Lewis were married. A fairer couple 
never stood before the altar. A brighter pros- 
pect for connubial enjoyment never dawned 
on a young couple. James, having a moderate 
fortune, bequeathed to him by his maternal 
grandfather, was entering upon an honorable 
profession, with every probability of gaining 
wealth and distinction ; and the plighted pair 
were satisfied, from years of most intimate 
association, of their mutual affection. Surely, 
nothing was lacking to increase their bliss. 
Alas ! in less than a year, the beautiful young 
bride was buried on the side of the hill on which 
stands the paternal residence, under the shady 
trees, and in a newly-opened cemetery. The 
blow fell heavily on the fond parents ; but they 
bore it with Christian resignation and fortitude, 
assured that their daughter, cut down in the 
bloom of life, had been removed to a brighter 
clime. 



At Home. 221 

Poor James ! the affliction was to him over- 
whelming. He saw in it the evidence of God's 
displeasure for his persistent refusal to enter 
the ministry. He had smitten the wife for the 
husband's perverseness. From the hour of her 
death, James cast aside his law books, and was 
fully resolved to devote his life to preaching the 
Gospel. Arrangements were promptly made for 
attending the Southern Baptist Theological 
Seminary, at Greenville, S. C. At the close of 
his session, he returned to the paternal home, 
in fine health, having gained the confidence and 
esteem of his teachers, won the affection of 
his fellow-students, and inspired his acquaint- 
ances with high hopes of his usefulness. — 
His arrival was a joyous event in the family, 
and almost made them forget, for a time, 
the lost loved one with whom his name 
was so tenderly associated. He preached a 
sermon in his father's pulpit, at Sandy River 
church, admitted by all who heard it to be no 
discredit to the place, or the honored name 
he bore. A general expectation was awakened 



222 Life of Rev. Daniel Witt. 

that the son would rival, and might possibly 
eclipse, the father in pulpit eloquence. 

James attended the session of the Baptist 
General Association of Virginia, in Staunton, 
it 1859. It was the privilege of the writer to 
occupy the same chamber with him. A more 
modest, dignified, sensible, promising young 
minister, he has rarely or never seen. At the 
close of the meeting, James returned to his 
father's. In a few weeks he was seized with a 
fever, and, after a short period of suffering, he 
was laid beside his almost idolized wife, on the 
side of the hill, under the shade of the trees. 

This was a dark dispensation of Providence. 
When the wife died, it seemed to be a sharp 
affliction to fit the husband for usefulness in the 
ministry; but when the husband, so full of 
promise, died, human reason was confounded. 
The bereaved parents and sympathizing friends 
could only say : " It is the Lord ; let Him do 
what seemeth Him good." They might, and 
probably did, sing : 



. \t ir<»ne. 228 

"Judge not the Lord by fet I 

l>ut trust Sim for Hisgraoe; 
Behind a Crowning providence, 

He hides a smiling face." 

One son yet remained to Dr. Witt by liis se- 
cond marriage. Jeter was just ripening into 
manhood. Like his brother James, he was no- 
bly endowed in body and in mind. Early in the 
war he joined a cavalry company and entered 
the Confederate service. Before he was ex- 
posed to the peril of battle his health failed, 
and he returned home on a furlough. At first, 
his condition excited no alarm ; but he suffered 
from a low grade of fever, which proved incur- 
able, and, in a few weeks, he too was conveyed 
to the extending cemetery on the side of the 
hill. His death was the more distressing, as 
he was betrothed to a beautiful young lady in 
the neighborhood, and was looking forward 
joyfully to his nuptial day. She mourned his 
loss in dignified silence ; but her unuttered grief 
added to the anguish of the smitten parents. 

It may be proper to add at this point, that 
Witt had one son, Samuel, by his last marriage, 



224 Life of Rev. Daniel Witt. 

who is still living. For the future welfare of 
this son of his old age, the devoted father very 
naturally felt a deep concern. Many prayers 
have been offered that the son might imbibe 
the spirit, and copy the example, and if the 
will of God be so, enter the profession, of his 
venerable parent. Young Witt having com- 
pleted his studies at Eichmond College, has 
commenced the practice of law ; but whether 
some providential dispensation may not turn 
his mind, as that of his brother James was 
turned, to a higher and more important calling, 
time must decide. 



Chapter x. 



CROSSING THE RIVER. 



Contents : Witt's Feeble Constitution.— Fre- 
quent Attacks of Sickness.— His Mortal Malady.— 
His Deathbed Exercises.— His Death.— His Burial. 
—His Funeral.— Honors to his Memory.— His Tomb- 
stone. 



Chapter 



x. 



CROSSING THE RIVER. 



| E. WITT was naturally of a slender form 
and of a feeble constitution. It has been 
already mentioned, that in early life he 
hastened his ministerial labors in anticipation 
of the nearness of death. He lived beyond the 
most sanguine expectation of his Mends. The 
preservation of his life seeemd to be ahnost a 
miracle. Throughout its whole period he was 
subject to most violent attacks of disease. His 
severe and perilous sickness in Charlotte has 
been already mentioned. Soon after his re- 
moval to Prince Edward, and while he was 
boarding with his friend and brother, Mr. 
Thomas Clark, he had another spell of illness, 
which brought him to the very verge of the 



228 Life of Rev. Daniel Witt. 

grave. The writer, providentially passing 
through the country, was permitted to see 
him just as his malady had taken a favorable 
turn. He was reduced to a pitiable, and, in 
some respects, an amusing state of imbecility. 
He had a morbid appetite, and was allowed to 
take temperate meals at stated hours ; but if 
the nurse delayed his refreshment a single 
minute beyond the appointed time, he lost all 
patience and self-control, and would fret or 
weep like a child. Godj however, mercifully 
raised him up, and he became for some years 
quite corpulent, weighing at one time more 
than two hundred pounds. 

Some time about the year 1850 Witt had a 
remarkable attack of sickness. He was sud- 
denly struck down, in great weakness, but not 
paralyzed. His death was momentarily ex- 
pected for some days. His pulsations, scarcely 
perceptible at the wrist, occurred at intervals of 
about a minute. During all this time his mind 
was clear and active to a degree to which it 
probably never attained before or afterwards. 
No hope of his recovery was entertained by 



( bossing tin River, 229 

physicians or friends. His work, however, was 

not done. The greal Physician had need <>!' 
lhs services, and was able to heal him. His re- 
covery, however, was slow. For a year or two 
he was almost entirely excluded from the min 
istry. Nor was his restoration to health ever 
complete. He would sometimes enjoy pretty 
fair vigor, and preach with his accustomed 
freedom, pathos and efficacy; but he was con- 
stantly liable to mysterious attacks which pros- 
trated Iris powers, and unfitted him for all 
mental effort. His sufferings under these as- 
saults were very great, not from actual pain, 
but from nervous depression. His breathing 
was a labor, and existence itself a burden. It 
is proper to say, too, for the warning of the 
young, that these complicated evils, as some of 
his physicians supposed, were the result of the 
use of tobacco. The habit of using it he con- 
tracted in^his youth, in a region where it was the 
staple product of the soil, and in a community 
among whom its use was almost universal. He 
was not enslaved by the habit; he could aban- 
don it at will ; but unfortunately his nervous 
16 



230 Life of Rev. Daniel Witt. 

system needed some stimulant, and how to use 
the stimulant without augmenting the disease 
was the difficulty. 

Witt did not die of the disease which for 
many years subjected him to so much discom- 
fort and suffering. He attended the meeting 
of the General Association in Petersburg, in 
1871, in usual health and fine spirits, and 
preached to the delight of his hearers. During 
the summer and the first months of autumn, his 
health was unusually good, and gave promise 
of several years of activity and usefulness. 

About the first of November Witt was seized 
with the disease of which he died, probably in- 
tussusception of the bowels. It was slow in 
jts progress, prostrating his body without im- 
pairing his intellect; eausing him occasional 
pain without greatly interrupting his devotions 
or his conversation, affording him an excellent 
opportunity to glorify God, which he was ready 
to improve. 

Hearing of the sickness of Dr. Witt, the 
writer went immediately to see him. The 
venerable pastor was prostrate, and experi- 



Crossing the River. 231 

encing occasional paroxysms of pain, but per- 
fectly in bis mind, and calm as a summer's 
evening. It was no common privilege, though 
it was sad and afflictive to be in his presence. 
The consolations of the gospel had been a fa- 
vorite theme of his ministry. He was "a son 
of consolation," and thousands}had experienced 
the comforting influence of his deep, tender 
sympathy, and of his vivid representations of 
the fulness and sweetness of the divine pro- 
mises. Now it was his privilege to experience, 
under bodily sufferings, and in the near pros- 
pect of eternity, the sustaining power of the 
gospel, and the abundance of the divine com- 
forts, and so confirm his life-long teaching by 
his dying testimony. 

He was perfectly resigned to the Divine will. 
Being neither desirous to live nor afraid to die, 
he lay, as he expressed it,[in the arms of Jesus. 
To Kev. S. J. Atkins, a beloved brother in the 
ministry, who was about^to offer prayer for him, 
he said: "Be sure to pray right. Pray that 
God's will may be done, and that I may be per- 
fectly resigned to it." 



232 Life of Rev. Daniel Witt 

Dr. Witt was not merely resigned to death, 
but had a sweet assurance of his acceptance 
with God. No cloud intervened between 
him and his Saviour. No doubt, or care, or 
fear disturbed his mind. "I feel," said he, 
" that I am hanging under the cross, and 
all is brightness and glory around it. All 
is right in reference to the future." He was 
not merely assured of his future blessedness, 
but was desirous to depart and to enjoy it. 
When it seemed probable that he might re- 
cover, he remarked, "If it had been left to me 
I sould have spread my wings and soared 
away." On another occasion he said, "All is 
bright and calm on the other side of the river." 
Again he said, "I have been thinking of the 
text, ' Sirs, we would see Jesus!' See Jesus! 
What a sight ! To see Jesus, to be like Him, 
to be with Him, to enjoy Him, — that is all my 
desire." 

The dying testimony of Dr. Witt to the truth 
and the consolation of the gospel was clear, 
emphatic and frequent. To a beloved fellow- 
laborer, Kev. S. J. Atkins, he said, "We have 



Crossing tin Rttn r. 

preached Christ a great deal together, and ] 
hope we shall enjoy His presence together is 

heaven. After a long life of service in the | >ul] >it 
and in the world, I can say, there is no delusion 
in the hope of the gospel, but it is a glorious 
reality. I need not say more." On taking leave of 
the brother, he said, "How sweet will be the 
meeting in heaven between us who have w r orked 
together so long and so harmoniously." To 
all who visited his sick-bed (and it was visited 
by crowds) he addressed words of instruction, 
admonition, or comfort, according to their ne- 
cessities. He spoke of death and of eternity 
with the composure with which, in the fulness 
of his health and vigor, he would have spoken 
of visiting a Mend, or filling an appointment 
for preaching. If all his dying words could 
have been treasured up and recorded, they 
would make a volume ; and they were full of 
Christ, and grace, and heaven. He was anxious 
to comfort his sorrowing friends. "Tell bro- 
ther Jeter," said he, "to preach a sweet sermon 
before long from the text (2 Cor. i. 3,) 'Blessed 
be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus 



234 Life of Rev. Daniel Witt. 

Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of 
all comfort, who comforteth us in all our tribu- 
lation.' " No doubt his thoughts were running 
on the rich, abounding, everlasting consola- 
tions, of which God is the source, Christ is the 
channel, and believers are the recipients; but 
who can preach the sweet, glowing, heavenly 
sermon which, in that hour of communion with 
God, and on the confines of eternity, was opened 
to his clear and enraptured mind 1 

When at last the weary pilgrim was called 
to cross the river, the writer did not enjoy the 
coveted privilege of walking with him down to 
the shore. He learns, however, from the faith- 
ful attendants that the hour of his departure 
was calm, peaceful and bright. After a restless 
night, he said to a brother in the morning, " I 
made some progress in getting across the 
river," and then repeated, with great earnest- 
ness, the line — 

" Nearer, my God, to Thee, nearer to Thee." 

He gradually sunk under his disease, and fell 
asleep on the 15th of November, 1871, just one 
week after he had reached his seventieth year, 



Crossing the River, 235 

without a struggle or a groan, as sinks the sun 

in the west to si line on other climes. To use 
the words frequently on his own lips — 

"His Maker kissed his soul away, 
And laid his flesh to rest, '' 

It w r as the expectation of Dr. Witt to be 
buried, with his sons and his daughter, under 
the beautiful tree on the side of the hill. It 
was a quiet, secluded spot, and would have 
been a fit resting place for the body of the 
weary traveller, who had so often visited it in 
sadness and in hope ; but the members of Sandy 
River church were desirous that his body be 
laid near the pulpit where he had so long and 
so faithfully preached the gospel, and where a 
fitting monument might remind the living of 
his shining virtues, his wise counsels, and his 
useful labors; and teach coming generations 
to revere his name. When informed that his 
brethren desired that he should be interred at 
the church, he said, "I had thought that it 
would be better for me to be buried there, but 
my precious children lie under the trees, and I 
wished to rest with them ; but let it be as the 



236 Life of Rev. Daniel Witt. 

brethren desire. No pastor ever had such 
brethren as I have." 

The day of the burial was inclement. The 
air was cold, the roads were muddy, and the 
notice of the service had not been widely cir- 
culated ; but the spacious church was well filled 
with persons of all classes, rich and poor, old 
and young, white and colored, Baptists and 
Psedobaptists, religious and irreligious. They 
had often met there before to hear from the 
lips of the venerable man of God the words 
of eternal life. Those lips were now sealed in 
death. The warm heart which had felt so deep 
a sympathy in human woe, and so lively an inter- 
est in every good word and work, was now still 
and cold. A gloom covered the congregation. 
There was no pomp, no ceremony, no high- 
sounding music ; but there were sighs, and 
tears, and sobs. There was singing mingled 
with weeping. There was intercession, with 
groanings which could not be uttered. There 
were addresses, delivered by ministers who 
knew and loved the departed, designed to com- 
fort the sorrowing, and to enforce the lessons so 



( f ro8$ing tin ffivi ,-. 287 

often uttered from thai pulpit \ but they were 
not needed The cold, pale, marble hoe of tin- 
loved and lost pastor preached with a solemnity 

and a pathos that even he, in the palmy days 
of his ministry, could not have equalled. The 
simple and brief services ended,— (it was pro- 
posed to have a more formal funeral at a 
future time,)— devout men carried the good 
man to his burial, as they did of old Stephen, 
the proto-martyr ; and if they did not make 
great lamentations over him, it was because 
they had learned to chasten and control their 
emotions. He was interred in the rear of the 
church, and within a few feet of the pulpit 
where, for so many years and with such potent 
influence, he proclaimed the glad tidings. " He 
being dead, yet speaketh." 

The more formal funeral of Dr. Witt took 
place at Sandy Kiver church on the third Lord's 
day in December following The weather was 
very unpropitious ; but the assembly was large, 
though much less than, under other circum- 
stances, it would have been. Eev. S. J. At- 
kins, and Eev. J. B. Garlic, D. D., took part 



238 Life of Jtev. Daniel Witt. 

in the devotional services. The sermon was 
preached by the writer, from Ps. cxii. 5 : "The 
righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance" 
Dr. A. M. Poindexter, destined soon to follow 
Witt to the celestial Canaan, delivered a most 
appropriate address on his talents and char- 
acter ; and Dr. T. W. Sydnor closed with an 
admirable portraiture of the beloved shepherd. 
Subsequently, the writer, by request, repeated 
the sermon in Richmond, where Witt was 
greatly loved ; in Farmville, where the church 
was founded by his ministry ; and in Liberty, 
where he was first received into the Church, 
and, through the long period of half a century, 
maintained an undiminished popularity. A 
Memorial Discourse on the Life and Character 
of Dr. Witt, delivered before the Appomattox 
Baptist Association, at Mount Vernon church, 
Campbell county, by Eev. Dr. Sydnor, was pub- 
lished by request of the body, and has been used 
in the preparation of this volume. 

The death of Witt was widely and deeply 
deplored ; and it was the more afflictive, because 
it was quickly followed by the loss of Rev. A. 



( f ro88ing th< River. 289 

M. Poindexter, D. D., Rev. James \\. Taylor, 

D. D., and Rev. L. W. Allen, all his oontempo 

raries, fellow-laborers and dearly loved friends. 
When the General Association met in Staunton, 
in June, 1872, it was called to record and 
lament such a loss as had never before come 
upon it in a single year. Faces were absent 
which had for a long season cheered the body ; 
and counsels were lacking, by which it had been 
guided in many a time of trial and discourage- 
ment. Frequent and touching allusions were 
made during the meeting to the virtues and 
labors of the venerated deceased; the great 
loss which had been sustained in their death ; 
and the cheering hope of a re-union with them 
before the throne of God and the Lamb ; and 
appropriate resolutions touching their labors, 
characters and death were adopted. 

A short time after the death of Dr. Witt, his 
friends caused a neat and suitable monument 
to be erected over his grave. On a granite 
base, thirty-four inches square, and eighteen 
inches high, rests a block of Italian marble, full 
two feet square, and two feet high, with mould- 



240 Life of Rev. Daniel Witt. 

ings. A marble shaft, six and a half feet high, 
eighteen inches square at the base, and ten 
inches square at the top, stands on the block ; 
making the monument the height of ten feet. 
About the middle of the shaft is sculptured, on 
one side, in bold relief, an open Bible, with the 
words inscribed on it : " Thou shalt love the 
Lord thy God ;" and underneath that line the 
words : " Jesus wept." 

On the west side of the marble block are en- 
graved these words : 

" Sacred to the Memory of Rev. Daniel Witt, D. D., 
forty-four years the beloved pastor of Sharon church. 
Erected by members of this Church and other friends. 
Born November 8th, 1801. Died November 15th, 1871." 

On the east side : 

' ' He was an eloquent man and mighty in the scrip- 
tures, knowing nothing among us but Jesus Christ and 
Him crucified. His dying words were : * I have been 
nothing but a preacher. ' " 

Op the south side : 

" He being dead, yet speaketh." 

" Remember the words that I spake unto you." 



( tossing the Rivi r. 24 I 

The monnment stands at the head oi the 
grave, which is neatly turfed, and surrounded 

by a substantial iron railing. Widely travelled 
and intelligent visitors have pronounced the 
monument to be of unsurpassed neatness and 
appropriateness. 






S3V£ 



C HAPTER XL 



THE GHABACTEB AND PREACHING TALENTS 
OF DP. WITT. 



Contents : Difficulty of delineating Moral 
Character.— Witt's Blamelessness.— His Humility. 
— His Disinterestedness. — The Beauty and Attrac- 
tiveness of his Piety. — The Agreeableness of his 
Society. — He was a Remarkable Preacher.— His 
Doctrinal Views.— His Baptistic Principles.— The 
Elements of his Success. 



Chapter xi. 



OHARAOT EB A N D PREACHING C \ L I 

OF DR. WITT. 



jf^T is no easy matter to delineate the charac- 
ter of a good man. There are so many vir- 
tues possessed by good men in common, 
that it requires much discernment and accurate 
discrimination to portray one of the class with 
dictinctive features. Most things that may be 
said of one may be said of all. To affirm that 
a person is amiable, generous, upright, candid, 
self-denying, conscientious, devout, and la- 
borious, is to draw a picture which may be 
claimed for thousands. Yet there must be some- 
thing distinctive in every human character, good 
or bad. Eccentric persons are easily described. 
Men of strong]y marked features are readily 
painted. It is particularly difficult to draw a 
17 



246 Life of Rev. Daniel Witt. 

distinctive portraiture of Daniel Witt. He had 
no oddities, no idiosyncrasies. His intellectual 
and moral qualities were peculiarly well rounded 
and harmonious. His memory, judgment, dis- 
crimination, and fancy were all equal. His 
moral qualities were evenly balanced. Yet it 
is proper to attempt a delineation of his char- 
acter. 

To comprehend fully the character of Dr. 
Witt, we must contemplate it in several as- 
pects. By nature, he was amiable, gentle and 
generous ; and by education, he was polite, up- 
right, and honorable. Without religion, he 
would have been a prominent," useful and pop- 
ular citizen, in any community. By the grace 
of God, he was a Christian of no common 
stamp. His piety was sincere, vital and con- 
trolling. All the purposes, labors and enjoy- 
ments of his life were regulated by it. He had 
no interest and no hope apart from the service 
of Christ. His character was adorned with 
every Christian grace, and his life abounded in 
all the fruits of righteousness, by Jesus Christ, 
to the glory of God. By some moral traits, 



Character ami Preaching Talents. 217 

however, he was peculiarly distinguished, and 
these demand special notice. 

Of all the active men whom I have known, 
Dr. Witt was the most faultless. It is not dif- 
ficult to find persons comparatively blameless. 
Their character is negative. Their nature is 
inert, their dispositions are flexible and their 
convictions are shallow. They give no offence, 
because they neither do, nor attempt to do any- 
thing in opposition to the views or wishes of 
their associates. They create no ripple on the 
surface of society, because they float with the 
current. Dr. Witt did not belong to this class 
of men. He was an earnest and diligent worker. 
His love of truth and righteousness was de- 
cided; his hatred of sin and error was deep 
and influential, and all his utterances and all 
his works were controlled by these feelings. 
Proof on this point was furnished by one of his 
dying remarks: "My life," he said, "Has given 
no uncertain sound. I have testified for Jesus. 
I have loved all that is good, and I have tried 
to do good." He made no compromises with 
evil, and shunned not to declare the whole 



248 Life of Rev. Daniel Witt. 

counsel of God ; and jet so kind was his heart, 
so bland was his manner, and so unselfish was 
his aim, that he rarely gave offence ; and when he 
did, the offended carried in their consciences 
the evidence that he was right. His discretion 
was almost perfect. Who ever saw him do an 
unrighteous or undignified deed, or heard him 
utter an unkind, discourteous or impure word ? 
He could have confidently said with Paul: "I 
have wronged no man, I have corrupted no 
man, I have defrauded no man." (1 Cor. vii. 2.) 
For fifty years I knew him as intimately as 
ever one man knew another, and I have no re- 
collection that he ever did or said aught, or 
displayed any feelings, for which the most rigid 
moralist could have reproved him. 

Humility was another striking quality in 
the character of our brother. In him this 
grace was severely tried. In his early years 
he attained an unrivalled popularity. Beared 
in obscurity, with' small educational advantages, 
by the mere force of his genius, in three years 
after he commenced his ministry, he became, 
with two or three exceptions, the most attrac- 



Character and Preaching Talents. 2 l ( .> 

tive preacher of his denomination in the State. 
It would not have been strange if his head had 
been turned. 

" Oh ! popular applause ! what heart of man 
Is proof against thy sweet seducing power ?" 

Witt, in his youth and in his inexperience, was 
proof against it. When multitudes hung on 
his preaching, and every tongue was vocal with 
his praise, he was never for a moment seduced 
into any undue estimate of his abilities. He 
continued to be, as he was in the beginning, a 
modest, unassuming and unpretending minister 
of Jesus. Who ever saw him put on airs of 
self-importance ? 

His humility was tested in another way. 
His precocious popularity was followed by re- 
action. His early pulpit efforts inspired hopes 
which it was impossible for him to fulfil ; and 
other gifted ministers appeared to divide with 
him the popular favor. For several years he 
experienced the disadvantage of this revulsion ; 
but it stirred in his bosom no feeling of envy 
or discontent. He was satisfied that the pub- 
lic formed a juster estimate of his abilities than 



250 Life of Bev. Daniel Witt. 

it had previously done. Of him, more than of 
almost any minister that I have known, it 
might be truly said, he was "clothed with 
humility." 

Another distinctive trait in the character of 
Dr. Witt was disinterestedness. It was appa- 
rent to all who knew him that he took the 
oversight of the flock "not by constraint, but 
willingly ; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready 
mind." His concern was not for a salary, but 
for the success of his ministry. He might have 
been hired to preach, but he could not have 
been hired not to preach* Other ministers 
with less commanding, and far less useful 
gifts, received an ample support for their 
labors, while he, during most of the period of 
his ministry, received a very meagre compen- 
sation. This deficiency was owing, in part, to 
the fact that, throughout most of his public 
life, he possessed ample means for his own 
support ; in part, to his modesty, which pre- 
vented him from urging upon the churches 
their obligation to communicate to him that 
taught them in the word in all good things ; 



Character and Preaching Talents, 261 

and in purt. do doubt, to an error which our 
churches adopted in the beginning, and from 
which the instructions and admonitions oi a 
century have not sufficed entirely [to deli 

them. The truth is. Witt loved Jesus, \o\ 
the gospel, loved souls, loved to preach, and 
would have paid, had it been necessary, for the 

privilege of preaching. "I thank God. he 
said on his death-bed, " that He has preserved 
me so long to preach the gospel. I have been 
nothing but a preacher. I have always been 
ready to preach, to my own people or to others ; 
and sometimes to my own hurt." 

The piety of Dr. Witt was peculiarly beauti- 
ful and attractive. In this respect it differed 
widely from that of his associate and teacher, 
the lamented Clopton. His piety was fervent, 
uncompromising and consistent ; but tinged 
with melancholy. He was austere, somewhat 
ascetic, resembling, in his temper and habits, 
John the Baptist. The piety of Witt was not 
less sincere, perhaps not less earnest; but it 
was, like that of John the evangelist, genial, 
affectionate and winning. Clopton would have 



252 Life of Rev. Daniel Witt. 

provoked and endured martyrdom. Witt 
would have disarmed and conquered bis per- 
secutors by the gentleness of his manner and 
the kindness of his spirit. Clopton com- 
manded the respect and troubled the con- 
sciences of men. Witt won their hearts and 
swayed their wills. Clopton's example im- 
pressed men with the necessity of religion; 
Witt's with the desirableness of it. Witt's 
presence inspired confidence. All who saw 
him could trust him. All who associated with 
him were constrained to admit that religion 
such as his would be a great blessing to the 
world. 

Witt was an eminently/genial and delightful 
companion. All classes of people loved his so- 
ciety. None associated with him without being 
charmed. His gentle manner, cheerful temper, 
harmless humor, his rich stores of knowledge, 
and simple flowing language, made him a uni- 
versal favorite. His conversation was remark- 
ably free from dogmatism, sarcasm and unchar- 
itableness. He had neither gift nor fondness 
for colloquial controversy. As he advanced in 



Character and Preaching Talents. 258 

years, lie became, if possible, more gentle and 
artless in his conversation. It is doubtful 
whether any man so fond of society as lie was, 
who took so large a part in conversation, and 
spoke so freely his own opinions as he did, 
ever gave less offence or caused less pain by his 
words than he. Who can remember any hasty, 
or unkind, or unjust, or impertinent, or dis- 
courteous remark that he ever uttered ? He may 
be fitly styled the man of the golden mouth. 

It remains for us to contemplate Witt as a 
preacher. " I am nothing but a preacher," he 
said, on his dying bed. The remark was pecu- 
liarly applicable to him. I have never known 
a minister so exclusively devoted to the work 
of preaching the gospel. It was not only his 
occupation, but his supreme delight, and his 
chief glory. He was not an agent ; not a po- 
lemic ; not a debater ; not eminently a discipli- 
narian ; not an author ; but he was a preacher. 
He was at home in the pulpit. None who ever 
heard him, in his happy mood, doubted his 
power to preach. 

In doctrine, he was what would be generally 



254 Life of lie v. Daniel Witt. 

termed a moderate Calvinist He entered the 
ministry about the time when the views of An- 
drew Fuller were supplanting those of Dr. 
Gill in the Baptist churches of Virginia ; and 
he readily accepted the Fullerian scheme of the 
atonement. In truth, he did not greatly con- 
cern himself about nice theological distinctions. 
The aim of his ministry was the salvation of 
men. He believed that they were shiners, 
justly condemned and needing salvation ; that 
there is salvation in Christ and in none other ; 
that all who repent and believe the gospel shall 
be saved, and only they ; and his constant, ear- 
nest endeavor was to induce men to embrace 
the gospel and so adorn it in their lives. His 
sermons were full of Christ. He preached Him 
first ; Him last ; Him all the time. With Witt 
the theme never grew old, never lost its in- 
terest or its power, and was never exhausted. 
To the last day of his life, he could find some- 
thing new to preach about Christ. 

Witt was a Baptist by education and from 
deep conviction. He never had the shadow of 
a doubt that the distinctive principles of his 



Character and Preaching Talents. 256 

denomination were scriptural. He did n 

to these views undue prominence in his minis 

try. nor did he fail, on proper occasions, to 
proclaim and defend them; bu1 always in 

modest, fair, and conciliatory manner. Be paid 
great respect to the opinions and feel] 
persons who differed from him on these poinl 
but nobody who knew him, doubted that his 
views were Baptistie, and that he had the coin- 
age to defend tliem. I remember to have heard 
hirn say of a minister who, as he judged, gave 
undue prominence to these principles, urged 
ihem with indiscreet zeal, and denounced their 
opposers with uncharitable severity, " If brother 
has the spirit of Christ, I have been labor- 
ing under a great mistake all my life time. 
The result of Dr. Witt's prudent, affectionate. 
candid, and faithful proclamation and defence 
of his denominational views was, that almost 
the entire communities in which he labored be- 
came Baptists. 

Considering the defects of his early educa- 
tion, the activity of his ministerial life, and the 
unfavorable circumstances for the improvement 



256 Life of Rev. Daniel Witt. 

of his talents under which he was always 
placed, he was a remarkable preacher. His 
sermons were not distinguished for their origin- 
ality, their depth, their acumen, their logical 
power, or their polished style; but they were 
clear, sensible, sound in doctrine, replete with 
Scripture proofs and illustrations, fluent, pa- 
thetic and sometimes almost seraphic. His 
hearers were not likely to say he is a great 
preacher, or even a good preacher ; but a sweet, 
a charming, or a delightful preacher. His dis- 
courses were exegetical rather than argumenta- 
tive, hortatory rather than descriptive, suited to* 
melt rather than to alarm, to win rather than 
to overwhelm. 

Of the power of Witt's preaching, there can 
be no question. One proof of it is furnished 
by the fact that, through a period of forty-five 
years, in an intelligent community, first among 
the fathers, and then among the children and 
grand-children, he not only maintained his re- 
putation, but to the last increased his pop- 
ularity and influence. His sun set, not dim- 
med by clouds, but in its noontide radiance. 



Chartxcter and Preaching Talents. 257 

Never were his congregations larger, never did 
they bear with greater delighl the silvery words 
of his lips, mid never did they render to bin a 
more heartfelt homage, than in the last months 

of his pastoral labor. "Everybody," Baid an 

intelligent Presbyterian elder, on hearing of 
his sickness, "goes to hear Dr. Witt preach. 
The thousands who were converted, edified, 
and comforted under his ministry, bore testi- 
mony to its efficacy. Many an eye, unused to 
weeping, poured forth tears under his melting 
strains; many a conscience stupified by sin, 
was aroused to a sense of guilt and danger, by 
his searching and solemn appeals ; many a 
heart lacerated and bleeding from affliction, 
was soothed and healed by the consolatory 
words that fell from his lips ; in short, many a 
sinner, wandering in the paths of sin and mis- 
ery was guided into the way of life and peace. 
by his faithful, winning ministry. 

In what the power of Witt's preaching chiefly 
consisted, it is not easy to say. It was dis- 
tinguished, not by a single striking quality, 
. but by a harmonious combination of qualities. 



258 Life of Rev, Daniel Witt. 

The substance of his sermons was truth : divine, 
evangelical, soul-saving truth. His style was 
simple. The most illiterate could understand 
it; indeed, could not misunderstand it. It 
was sometimes ornate and beautiful; but it 
was never obscure. His voice lacked compass, 
but it was naturally melodious, and, when he 
was excited, inimitably plaintive and touching. 
He was never boisterous in speaking. Neither 
the volume of his voice, nor his good taste 
would permit him to be. His gestures in the 
pulpit were easy, natural, and generally expres- 
sive ; but always unstudied. His manner was 
never awkward or repulsive ; but, in his in- 
felicitous mood, it might be restrained and 
feeble. His unquestionable sincerity was pro- 
bably the strongest element of his ministerial 
influence. He believed, and therefore he spoke. 
None could hear him without feeling convinced 
that his words gave utterance to the deep con- 
victions of his soul. It was apparent that he 
was concerned, not about the manner of his 
speaking, or the judgment that would be pass- 
ed on it ; but that the truth which he uttered 



Character and Preaching '/'<ii< ' 

might have its legitimate influence on the heai 
and lives of hia hearers. 

Dr. Witt was not wedded to any method of 
sermonizing. He usually selected a shorl b 
expounded it, and made a practical application 
of it; but occasionally his discourses were his 
torical, or devoted to the discussion of a sin 
topic. When he commenced liis ministry the 
custom of spiritualizing the scriptures, as it was 
called, was almost universal. Ministers in- 
dulged in the most fanciful interpretations of 
the Word of God. The Songs of Solomon 
were the great repository of texts for sermons 
of this kind. They furnished fine scope for the 
indulgence of the imagination, the exercise of 
the ingenuity, and the gratification of the curi 
ous; and, doubtless, much valuable truth was 
incorporated with these pious absurdities. Witt 
had neither taste nor talent for the composition 
of these popular crudities. In his early year.-. 
he essayed a few sermons of this sort ; but 
soon abandoned " spiritualizing," for a more 
sober and rational mode of interpreting the 
scriptures. 



260 Life of Hev. Daniel Witt. 

Witt became a very safe guide in the exposi- 
tion of God's word. He was not so strikingly, 
as was the seraphic Straughan of the Northern 
Neck, a man of "one book." Witt had, for a 
country pastor, a pretty good library, and made 
a fair use of it ; but his sermons were derived 
largely from the scriptures. His arguments, 
his illustrations, his language, his spirit, showed 
that the Bible was his constant study and the 
magazine whence he drew his supplies. His 
knowledge of the scriptures, though not critical, 
was wide and intimate ; and his retentive mem- 
ory was richly stored with divine truth. In 
his sermons, every doctrine was proved, every 
duty was enforced, every exhortation was 
pointed, by an apposite quotation from the 
Word of God. 

Another quality, which increased the influ- 
ence of Witt's preaching, was its experimental 
character. In the beginning of his ministry, 
his discourses were eminently experimental. 
Indeed, his knowledge was so limited, and his 
experience was so fresh, and deep, and thorough, 
that he was necessitated to draw his sermons 



Character and teaching Tahiti 

largely from the remembered workings and the 
conscious emotions of his own heart This 
kind of preaching was at that time common j 
but it was soon, in a great measure, aband< 

Witt, however, continued to the close of his 
labors, to testify from his own experience the 
efficacy of divine grace. He could say, and he 
delighted to say, with Paul : " By the gift 
God, I am what I am." Multitudes, hearing 
from the preacher's lips what God had done for 
him, were inspired with an earnest longing to 
share with him in the blessings of divine grace. 



18 






D ELINEATIO N 



DR. WITTS MINISTERIAL QUALIFICATION* 
AND CHARACTER. 



By Rev. T. W. Sydnor, D. D. 



Delineation 



PR. WITT'S MINISTERIAL QUALIFICATIONS 
CHARACTER. 



J H E following delineation of the ministerial 
qualifications and character of Dr. Witt, 
taken from a Memorial Discourse delivered 
before the Appomattox Baptist Association, in 
August, 1872, by Rev. T. W. Sydnor, D. D., 
his intimate and endeared friend, and pub 
lished by request of the body, is presented in 
confirmation of the correctness of the estimate 
of Dr. Witt's gifts and labors furnished in the 
preceding memoir : 

It was my privilege for nearly thirty y 
to be intimately associated with the excellent 
man whose life I have briefly sketched, sad 
whose death now fills our hearts with Badness. 



266 Life of Hev. Daniel Witt 

Our fields of labour were contiguous, and, in 
part, identical. We were much together. He 
was often with me in my family, and among 
my churches. I was sometimes with him in 
his family, and among his churches. I had the 
best opportunity of knowing him, and I think 
I knew him well. For his own sake, and for 
his work's sake, I esteemed and loved him. 
"He was a good man, and full of the Holy 
Ghost, and of faith, and much people was 
added unto the Lord." 

And now let me give you my estimate of the 
character of Dr. Witt as a minister of Jesus 
Christ. I will do so by pointing you at once 
to the very highest standard of ministerial 
qualification. I say the highest standard, be- 
cause the divine standard. I will show you 
what he was by showing you what a Christian 
minister ought to be. The Apostle Paul, un- 
der the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, has given 
us the qualifications of a bishop ; and you will 
see, as I proceed to recite those qualifications, 
that they embrace the very gifts and graces 
for which our brother was so eminently dis- 



Dr. 8ydn or'a Delineation. 861 

languished. Hear, then, what the Bolj Gh 

saith : 
"This is a true saying, H a man desire the 

office of a bishop, ho desireth a good work. A 
bishop, then, must be blameless, the husband 
of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, 
given to hospitality, apt to teach: not given 
to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre, 
but patient; not a brawler, not covetous; one 
that ruleth well his own house, having his 
children in subjection with all gravity. (For 
if a man know not how to take care of his own 
house, how shall he take care of the church of 
God?) Not a novice, lest, being lifted up with 
pride, he fall into the condemnation of the 
devil. Moreover, he must have a good report 
of them that are without, lest he fall into re 
proach and the snare of the devil. —1 Tim. iii. 

1-7. 

Such a bishop Paul desired Timothy to 
such a bishop Daniel Witt was. I oannoi 
speak of him as a man of extraordinary mental 
vigor, or of profound and varied learning. 
But these qualities, however desirable, are not 



268 Life of Bev. Daniel Witt. 

to be regarded as ministerial requisites, and are 
really of but little worth as compared with the 
qualifications given in this inspired summary. 
In not one of these was our brother deficient; 
nor is it easy to tell in which he had made the 
highest attainment. In his conduct as a man 
he was well nigh faultless ; not a recluse, but 
in all his intercourse with the world, remark- 
ably circumspect, discreet, and orderly; not 
an ascetic, but yet habitually sober, sedate, and 
self-denying ; not a lover of pleasure, though 
full of life and animation, affable, cheerful, and 
spirited ; not given to wine, not self-indulgent, 
but temperate in all things ; not contentious 
and quarrelsome, but a man of peace, averse 
to strife, patient towards all men ; not covetous 
and avaricious, but unselfish and generous, 
"ready to distribute," "willing to communi- 
cate," " given to hospitality"; not arrogant and 
haughty, never lifted up with pride, never in- 
flamed with unholy ambition, always " clothed 
with humility." As a husband he was a model 
of purity, fidelity, and tenderness. As the 
father of a family, he presided well over his 



Dr. Syihiors Delineation. 269 

household, having his children in submission 
with all decorum. As a preacher, he was not a 
novice, unacquainted and unskilled in his busi- 
ness, but an expert, tried and approved; pro 
foundry versed in the Word of God, and singu- 
larly apt in expounding and enforcing its truths. 
With these noble traits of character, it is not 
strange that he had so good a testimony 
from those without. There never lived a man 
who shared more largely the esteem, the con- 
fidence, and the affection of his fellow-men. 
Commending himself to every man's conscience 
in the sight of God, he was admired, loved, 
and honored by all characters and all classes. 

A man's character is best seen in his life, and 
a man's qualifications for any calling are best 
evidenced by the manner in which he discharges 
the duties of that calling. How, then, did our 
brother employ his high talents in doing the 
work of an evangelist ? How did he preach \ 
Precisely as Paul directed Timothy to preach : 
"I charge thee, therefore, before God and the 
Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick 
and the dead, at His appearing and His king 



270 Life of Rev. Daniel Witt. 

clom, preach the word ; be instant, in season, 
out of season ; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with 
all long suffering and doctrine." — 2 Tim. iv. 
1-2. 

Brother Witt was wont to say of himself, " I 
am a preacher, nothing but a preacher." Well, 
he was a preacher indeed. He knew how to 
preach, he loved to preach, and he made it his 
business to preach. Few could preach like 
him. He was a born preacher, a pre-ordained 
preacher. God was pleased, as I verily believe, 
to set him apart from his mother's womb, to 
call him by His grace, to reveal His Son in 
him, that he might preach Him among the peo- 
ple. He was " nothing but a preacher;" a 
preacher of the Word, the Word of God; an 
advocate of the truth, the truth that is in Jesus ; 
a contender for the faith, the faith delivered to 
the saints ; a proclaimer of the Gospel, the 
Gospel of our salvation. 

For fifty years he was a watchman on the 
walls of Zion. With numerous outposts, Sandy 
Kiver church was his principal station. There 
he stood before God, and before Jesus Christ, 



Dr. Sydnor's Delineati ii7 1 

and in full view of the greal judgment ] 
•nod month after month, year after year, in 

sunshine and in storm, in sickness and in health, 
watching for souls, "ceasing not to warn i 
man, night and day, with tears,' 1 and to M 1 

every man, that he might present every man 
perfect in Christ Jesus." 

There he stood, a shiner — kW a poor Banner/ 1 
as he was accustomed to call himself. DanU I 
Witt a sinner ? Just such a sinner as the 
Apostle John — a sinner whom Je&us laved. 
Just such a sinner as the Apostle Paul — a sin- 
ner toko obtained mercy. Not a condemned 
sinner; not a lost and ruined sinner; not an 
unregenerate, impenitent, unbelieving sinner: 
but a pardoned sinner, a justified sinner, a re- 
newed sinner, a redeemed sinner, accepted in 
the Beloved, complete in Christ, a sinner - 
by grace. 

There he stood, a disciple of Jesus 
pupil in the school of Christ, ready to hear His 
word and to learn of Him. He aimed to learn 
divine truth immediately from the divine Word, 
and under the teaching of the divine Spirit. He 



272 Life of Rev, Daniel Witt 

wished to be taught of God for a two-fold rea- 
son : that he might himself grow in wisdom, in 
knowledge, and in grace, and that he might be 
able to teach others also. He sought to save 
both himself and them that heard him. Verily 
he studied the "Word of God to some purpose. 
He was a scribe well instructed in the word of 
righteousness. 

There he stood, a servant — a bondman under 
God's authority, and awaiting God's commands, 
feeling all the time that he was in the presence 
of the Master, under His all-seeing, heart- 
searching, ever-living eye ; as a faithful servant, 
watching his Master's hand, hearing his Mas- 
ter's voice, receiving his Master's orders, ready 
to execute his Master's will. 

There he stood, an angel of God — a mes- 
senger of truth, a legate of the skies, a mis- 
sionary of the cross, an apostle to the world, an 
ambassador for Christ, persuading men, in 
Christ's stead to be reconciled to God. 

He was a preacher, " nothing but a preacher." 
He preached the Word, nothing else ; the Gos- 
pel, not another Gospel ; the truth, nothing but 



Dr. Sydnor'a Delineation* 2 -•» 

the truth. In doing this he would "rephr 

like, exhort, with all long suffering and & 
trine." These three words, reprove, rebuke, tot 
liort, qualified by the phrase with all long suf- 
fering and doctrine, suggest the true secret of 
Daniel Witt's power in the pulpit 

In dealing with the unconverted, his find 
concern was to reprove or convince them of bin ; 
to make them see and feel that they were guilty 
and condemned, lost, ruined, and undone. This 
is the first part of the Spirit's work. " When he 
is come he will reprove (convince) the world of 
of sin, righteousness, and of judgment." It is 
properly the first part of the preacher's work. In 
it Dr. Witt was eminently skillful. He had 
wondrous power over the consciences of his 
hearers. He could exhibit the depravity of the 
human heart, the guiltiness of our fallen race, 
the exceeding sinfulness of sin, with such clear- 
ness and cogency of argument, with such point- 
edness and pungency of appeal, and, at the 
same time, with such touching, subduing, melt- 
ing pathos, that none but a very monster of 
iniquity, one whose heart was seared as with a 



274 Life of Rev. Daniel Witt. 

hot iron, past feeling, could resist the words 
with which he spake. 

In administering rebuke Dr. Witt was singu- 
larly considerate and judicious. He never made 
an application to particular individuals, or to 
any distinctly designated class, in a way which 
could be construed as offensive or unkind. He 
had no penchant for " hitting at" people. And 
yet he was fearless, frank, and faithful in telling 
men of their faults. His hearers were made to 
feel that he was talking to them, and not 
merely declaiming before them — that he was 
speaking, not for their entertainment, but for 
their profit. And whenever he had occasion to 
use sharpness of speech, it was with such sua- 
vity and gentleness of manner as never to pro- 
voke resentment. " In meekness" he would 
" instruct those that opposed themselves." He 
rebuked with long suffering. When he applied 
the rod it was in love and the spirit of meek- 
ness. 

In another part of the preacher's work Dr. 
Witt was peculiarly happy and effective. He 
was gifted in exhortation. His exhortations 



Dr. Sydnor's Delineation. 

were not mere rhapsodies — impassioned, bat 

disconnected appeals. They were based 00 
sound doctrine — earnest, fervent, but \<t in 
structive. He exhorted with doctrine^ with 
teaching. He could urge and incite to duty. 
beseech, entreat, and persuade, especially in 
the way of consolation and encouragement, as 
few have been able to do. This is the second 
part of the Spirit's work: To comfort, to ani- 
mate, to encourage. And this, too, is a most 
important part of the preacher's work. In it 
our brother excelled. His mission as a preacher 
was specially to the burdened and disconsolate. 
He was eminently a son of consolation. It 
seemed, really, that he was " anointed," as his 
Master before him, " to preach good tidings to 
the meek, to bind up the broken-hearted, to pro- 
claim liberty to the captive, comfort all that 
mourn, to give unto them beauty for ashes, 
the oil of joy for moui^ning, and the garment 
of praise for the spirit of heaviness." 

Have I been extravagant in my praises of 
this excellent man ! I think not. I have held 
him up as a model minister of the New Testa- 



276 Life of Rev. Daniel Witt. 

ment, possessing every essential qualification 
for that divine office, wisely and faithfully dis- 
charging its various and arduous duties. Other 
ministers have done well; few so well as he. 
Though, in certain natural gifts, and in some 
special attainments, some have greatly excelled 
him ; in learning, logic, and in elegance of dic- 
tion, many have surpassed him ; in ingenuity 
and energy, in the wide compass of their plans, 
and in the persistent pressing of their work, in 
grand achievement, and in high renown, some 
have gone far beyond him ; but in the recti- 
tude of his conduct, in the simplicity of his 
manners, in the loveliness of his spirit, in hu- 
mility, in benevolence, in gentleness, in pru- 
dence, in patience, in fidelity : in all things 
true, and honest, and just, and pure, and lovely 
and of good report, he was almost without an 
equal. 



